{"id":608007,"date":"2026-09-06T21:14:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-06T21:14:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/608007\/"},"modified":"2026-09-06T21:14:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-06T21:14:10","slug":"abdul-el-sayed-uses-speech-to-talk-about-muslim-faith-and-american-identity-us-midterm-elections-2026-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/608007\/","title":{"rendered":"Abdul El-Sayed uses speech to talk about Muslim faith and American identity | US Midterm Elections 2026 News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"article__subhead\">The Michigan Senate hopeful spoke about his faith and the experiences of Muslim Americans.<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"avatar\" tabindex=\"-1\" aria-hidden=\"true\" href=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/author\/hoda-sherif\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Screenshot-2026-08-30-at-1.31.46-PM-copy-1788111319.jpg\"   aria-hidden=\"true\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Published On 6 Sep 20266 Sep 2026<\/p>\n<p>The Democratic Senate candidate for the US state of Michigan, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2026\/8\/5\/abdul-el-sayed-wins-michigan-democratic-primary-for-senate-in-blow-to-aipac\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Abdul El-Sayed<\/a>, has used a speech in Detroit to discuss Muslim American identity, while also blasting the US and Israel\u2019s war on Iran.<\/p>\n<p>At the Annual Islamic Society Conference on Saturday, the 41-year-old Democrat and public health advocate, who has been on the receiving <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2026\/8\/10\/how-the-us-far-right-weaponised-inshallah-against-abdul-el-sayed\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">end of Islamophobic remarks<\/a> during this election cycle, addressed Islamophobia in the US.<\/p>\n<p>Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of list<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe find ourselves in a moment now, where as people point to us, Muslim Americans, they want to tell us that we don\u2019t belong,\u201d he told the crowd. \u201cThey want to tell us that this country is not ours. They want to tell us that because of our names and how we pray, somehow we are less than. But as I look in front of me, I see people who contribute to that big America every single day.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>El-Sayed, who is seeking the Democratic nomination for the US Senate seat in November\u2019s midterms, will face a high-stakes general election battle against Republican Mike Rogers. The former US Representative is backed by President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n<p>After weeks of trading barbs online, the two candidates have finally agreed to hold two televised debates, the first on October 8 at Wood TV8 in Grand Rapids, \u00a0the second on October 21 at WXYZ-TV in Detroit.<\/p>\n<p>Addressing the state of Muslim American belonging, El-Sayed said that \u201cat their best, being Muslim makes us better Americans \u2026 and being American enables us to be better Muslims,\u201d he said. He added that the two sets of ideals are \u201cnot mutually exclusive.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>During his speech, El-Sayed also questioned the US government\u2019s spending priorities under Trump against the backdrop of continuing military escalations and overseas quagmires.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHow are you gonna pay for that [war in Iran] while we know our infrastructure is crumbling and our literacy rates are tumbling?\u201d he asked the crowd. \u201cIt\u2019s time for us to focus on addressing the problems that people in our country need solved.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Travelling across the Midwestern state in recent weeks, El-Sayed said that he found residents\u2019 concerns transcended religious, racial and geographic divides. He said they were \u201cbasic needs\u201d like paying for groceries and gas \u201cinstead of dropping bombs or doing apartheid or genocide against somebody else and their kids\u201d, referring to Israel\u2019s genocidal war in Gaza.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMichiganders don\u2019t care how you pray,\u201d he said. \u201cThey care what you pray for and what you hope for.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Michigan Senate hopeful spoke about his faith and the experiences of Muslim Americans. Published On 6 Sep&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":608008,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[85,46,43,1032,1156,209722],"class_list":["post-608007","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-news","tag-united-states","tag-us-canada","tag-us-midterm-elections-2026"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/608007","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=608007"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/608007\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/608008"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=608007"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=608007"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=608007"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}