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If you have listened to Abdulrahman Mohamed El-Sayed lately, you know the pitch. Affordability. Healthcare. Working families. The cost of living. All the things people are worried about right now and all the things a politician running for the United States Senate knows people want to hear.
Nothing to worry about here. Just a regular guy concerned about your grocery bill.
But then the internet pulls back the curtain.
A video has resurfaced from a 2022 speech Abdulrahman Mohamed El-Sayed gave at a Council on American-Islamic Relations event in Oklahoma, and suddenly the affordability guy sounds a little different.
This is unbelievable. I thought it was AI.
Abdul El-Sayed advocates for sharia law in the U.S.
He argues that the U.S. banned sharia because of hate and discrimination, and the forces that banned it are the same forces that committed [insert every historic evil].
This is… pic.twitter.com/3xWutvI9yH
— Elica Le Bon الیکا ل بن (@elicalebon) August 9, 2026
El-Sayed was talking about a 2010 Oklahoma ballot measure that would have barred state courts from using Sharia law. Oklahoma voters approved it overwhelmingly, with more than 70 percent voting yes. But the measure never took effect because it was challenged in federal court and blocked on First Amendment grounds.
El-Sayed apparently found the whole idea troubling.
The practicing Muslim and Michigan Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Abdulrahman Mohamed El-Sayed went on to say that the same exact forces that drove Native Americans from their land, destroyed Black Wall Street and bombed the federal building in Oklahoma City also tried to ban Sharia law.
Excuse me?
We just went from Oklahoma voters saying they don’t want Sharia law considered in their state courts to the Trail of Tears, the Tulsa Race Massacre, and the Oklahoma City bombing.
That’s quite a trip.
El-Sayed’s campaign confirmed in August that he continues to observe Sharia law in his personal life after a 2009 New York Times interview resurfaced in which he described following Islamic religious law as an obligation. “Ultimately, the question is, when I die and I stand before God and go through everything I did in my life, I don’t want to say I did it the easy way instead of the Shariah-compliant way,” El-Sayed said at the time. – Breitbart
Since Abdulrahman Mohamed El-Sayed brought it up, let’s remember what he’s comparing here.
The Trail of Tears resulted from a federal removal policy that forced thousands of Cherokee and other Native Americans from their homes in the Southeast and relocated them west. Federal troops and state militia carried out the Cherokee removal, and thousands died during the journey or from its consequences.
Whatever you think about that chapter of American history, comparing a government-forced removal that cost thousands of lives to Oklahoma voters approving a constitutional amendment about what their state courts could consider is one heck of a comparison.
Anyway.
Back to Sharia law.
Oklahoma voters weren’t banning Muslims from praying, closing mosques, outlawing Ramadan or telling anyone they couldn’t practice their religion. They were voting to keep Sharia law and international law from being considered in their state courts, and more than 70 percent said yes. Should have been a higher percentage but I digress.
And remember, El-Sayed himself follows Sharia in his personal life. His campaign says he believes in the separation of church and state and opposes any religious community writing its religious laws into American law.
Of course that’s what his campaign says. It’s election season. Politicians saying exactly what voters want to hear before Election Day isn’t exactly a new concept. What they say when they’re not asking for your vote can be a whole lot more interesting.
Politicians don’t exactly have a long history of announcing the unpopular stuff before Election Day.
That’s why I’m less interested in the carefully packaged candidate telling voters what they want to hear and more interested in what he said when he wasn’t running this particular campaign. Comparing opposition to Sharia law with the forces behind the Trail of Tears tells me something too.
Abdulrahman Mohamed El-Sayed would very much like voters to pay attention to what’s happening in front of the curtain.
I’d pay attention to what’s behind it.
original graphic by Darleen Click
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