MS NOW: Michigan Arab and Muslim leaders say Trump's attacks on El-Sayed have closed the door on Republicans

MS NOW reported on Oct. 21 that Arab and Muslim leaders in Michigan say Republican attacks on Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed have closed off what MS NOW called a rare Republican opening with those voters. According to MS NOW, Husham Al-Husainy, an Iraqi American imam in Dearborn who backed Donald Trump in 2024 in protest of the Biden administration's support for Israel's war in Gaza, now supports El-Sayed. Now, Al-Husainy said, "there's no thanking; there's attacking." He told MS NOW that most of the local Muslim voters he knows who backed Trump in 2024 plan to vote for El-Sayed over Republican Mike Rogers.

MS NOW reported that Trump called El-Sayed a "jihadist" at a rally in Georgia on Friday and has repeatedly referred to him on Truth Social as "Mohammed," his middle name. MS NOW described Trump's "jihadist" and "member of the Muslim Brotherhood" claims as baseless, and said Rogers has falsely stated that El-Sayed "believes that America deserved 9/11." Rexhinaldo Nizarko, a Michigan political strategist who works to mobilize Muslim voters, said of Republicans: "They blew it for sure." Jim Zogby, who leads the Arab American Institute, said: "I don't understand Republicans when they do this — it's not expanding their base, it's actually inflaming their existing base."

Dearborn Mayor Abdullah Hammoud said: "There has been no authentic outreach to the Muslim community because they do not believe that the Muslims should be at the table within the party." He pointed to comments by Rep. John James, the Republican nominee for governor, who in a Newsmax interview this summer called Shiite Muslims in Dearborn marching to commemorate Ashura "extremists," and, after the Michigan chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations condemned the remarks, called CAIR "a radical extremist group," according to MS NOW.

MS NOW also reported that Trump endorsed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for re-election this week. Bishara Bahbah, chairman of the group formerly known as Arab Americans for Trump, called the endorsement "a major betrayal of the Arab and Muslim Americans who voted for the president in 2024" in a post on X, and told MS NOW that Trump's attacks on El-Sayed are "astounding," "unacceptable" and "crossing red lines."

Republicans reject the charge that their attacks on El-Sayed are Islamophobic or that the party has abandoned Arab and Muslim voters, MS NOW reported. Abby Ronson, a spokesperson for Rogers, said: "There has been a concentrated effort by our campaign to speak to every single group." State Sen. Jim Runestad, chair of the Michigan Republican Party, said Rogers asked the state party not to attack El-Sayed's faith or mock his name, which Ronson confirmed. Runestad said: "It's very important that the Republican Party be engaged in the Muslim community." Samantha Cantrell, regional press secretary for the National Republican Senatorial Committee, said El-Sayed "has serious questions to answer." El-Sayed told ABC News that the focus on his name and religion is an attempt to "distract us from the fact that we can't afford our gas and we can't afford our groceries."