Abdul El-Sayed Digs Author Who Supports Child Marriage and Terrorism

Michigan Democrat Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed apparently has a thing for a radical Islamic author who supports terrorism and child marriage.

The Washington Free Beacon reported that El-Sayed had a book written by a suspected terrorist on his bookshelf during the filming of a 2018 documentary.

A bookshelf in Abdul El-Sayed's living room—which he sought to conceal from a documentary film crew in 2018—contained works by an unindicted co-conspirator of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, a member of an Islamic group that sought to establish a Sharia-governed state, and a Muslim cleric whose writings have influenced al Qaeda and other major terrorist groups.

The living room bookshelf came into frame as El-Sayed—now the Michigan Democratic Senate nominee—showed off his wedding pictures during a scene in How to Fix a Primary, a documentary about his failed 2018 gubernatorial bid. During the scene, El-Sayed was filmed pointing to his bookshelf as he asked the filmmakers to "not get these things in the shot" because he wanted to "keep the shot secular." But the filmmakers ultimately provided a close-up shot of the bookshelf, which contained a copy of the Quran and about three dozen texts analyzing various aspects of the Muslim faith, several by Islamic extremists.

That includes Dream Interpretation According to the Qur'an, by Dr. Abu Ameenah Bilal Philips, a Jamaican-born Islamic scholar named by the United States as an unindicted co-conspirator of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. Philips now resides in Qatar after being deported or banned from several nations in the Western world during the late 2000s and early 2010s, including the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, Germany, and Denmark, over his extremist views, according to the Counter Extremism Project. Philips has defended the bravery of suicide bombers, touted AIDS as proof that "homosexuality is evil and dangerous," advocated that young girls are fit for marriage the moment they begin menstruating (which for some girls can begin as young as eight years old), and argued that husbands are permitted to beat their wives so long as the thrashing is "light" and the man's intention "is not to inflict pain but to bring the wife back to her senses and re-establish authority."

NEW: Abdul El-Sayed's living room bookshelf features works from Dr. Abu Ameenah Bilal Philips, an unindicted co-conspirator of the 1993 WTC bombing.

Philips has advocated for child marriage, says wife-beating is permissible so long as it's done to "bring the wife back to her…

— Andrew Kerr (@AndrewKerrNC) August 19, 2026

The Beacon noted that El-Sayed’s mother, Fatten Fathy Elkomy worked for the Islamic American Relief Agency, which funded Osama Bin Laden.

The report acknowledges that the candidate also had books written by moderate Islamic authors on his shelf as well.

Sandwiched in with the books written by Islamic extremists on El-Sayed's bookshelf were works by more moderate authors such as Islamic Methodology in History by Fazlur Rahman Malik, whose work has been criticized as "excessively liberal" by conservative Islamic scholars, and Caesarean Moon Births, a book that addresses how the lunar calendar determines the start of Ramadan, by Hamza Yusuf, a white convert to Islam who has sharply condemned religious justifications for terrorist attacks, including 9/11.

El-Sayed has sent mixed messages on the issue of terrorism. During a July 2025 town hall, he said there are times when it is necessary to use military force against radical extremist groups. But he also affirmed that America’s leaders should understand what leads to terrorist attacks.

"There is a level of pain and frustration and a level of lack of agency that they have to feel to do something so insane and absurd, right?" he said.

The candidate has also claimed Israel is as evil as terrorist groups like Hamas. “Yes, killing tens of thousands of people makes you pretty damn evil,” he said. “It’s not how evil is this one versus that one — Hamas: Evil, Israeli government: Evil. We can say both.”

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