Michigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdulrahman El-Sayed continues to follow Islamic religious rules in his personal life, his campaign has confirmed after comments he made about Sharia as a young medical student resurfaced ahead of November’s election.
The comments date to a 2009 New York Times article, when El-Sayed was a 24-year-old medical student and Rhodes scholar. According to the report, he had purchased a $123,000 condominium in Ann Arbor using a “Sharia-compliant” mortgage structured to avoid interest, which Islamic religious law prohibits.
The Washington Free Beacon recently brought renewed attention to the interview.
“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 told the Times at the time. “Not because of fear but because of obligation.”
Asked whether that remains his approach today, El-Sayed’s campaign confirmed that he continues to observe the requirements of his religion personally while drawing a firm distinction between private faith and public law.
“Abdul believes in the separation of church and state,” campaign spokeswoman Roxie Richner told the Free Beacon. “While he personally lives by the rules of his faith, as many Americans of various faiths do, Abdul opposes any effort by any religious community to write their faith laws into the laws of our country.”
That distinction will likely be central to any discussion of the resurfaced remarks.
Sharia refers broadly to Islamic religious principles and jurisprudence rather than a single universally applied legal code. Interpretations and applications differ substantially among Muslim communities and schools of Islamic law. Its rules can govern personal religious practices involving matters such as prayer, diet, marriage and finance.
The 2009 story concerned the latter. Traditional Islamic rules prohibit riba, commonly understood to include charging or paying interest, leading to financial products designed specifically for Muslims seeking alternatives to conventional interest-bearing mortgages.
But El-Sayed’s past comments about Sharia have generated controversy before.
During his unsuccessful 2018 campaign for Michigan governor, journalist Laura Loomer confronted him about whether he was “Sharia-compliant.” El-Sayed denied having described himself that way and ended the interview shortly afterward.
Another moment appeared in the documentary How To Fix A Primary. While cameras were present, El-Sayed pointed toward items on a bookshelf and told the filmmakers, “You’re going to want to not get these things in the shot.”
“We’re trying to keep the shot secular,” he added.
El-Sayed has also publicly opposed efforts to prohibit Sharia law.
During a 2022 speech, he criticized an Oklahoma ballot measure targeting Sharia and discussed it alongside dark episodes from the state’s history, including the Trail of Tears, the Tulsa race massacre and the Oklahoma City bombing.
The subject is resurfacing at a consequential moment for El-Sayed.
He narrowly defeated Rep. Haley Stevens in Michigan’s Democratic Senate primary despite more than $30 million in spending by AIPAC supporting his opponent. He will now face Republican Mike Rogers in November for the seat being vacated by retiring Democratic Sen. Gary Peters.
If elected, El-Sayed would become the first Muslim to serve in the United States Senate.
That historic possibility will inevitably bring additional attention to his religion. But the relevant constitutional question is straightforward: American officeholders are permitted to practice their faith, whether Muslim, Christian, Jewish or otherwise, while the Constitution prohibits religious tests for federal office and limits government establishment of religion.
El-Sayed’s campaign says that is precisely the line he draws.
