Michigan Democrat Abdul El-Sayeds decision to share a stage with a Holocaust-denying Shiite cleric and lavish praise on a Hezbollah-aligned imam is casting a long shadow over his closely watched U.
S. Senate campaign.
At a June 6 ceremony marking the grand opening of the Islamic Institute of Americas new $16 million mosque in Dearborn Heights, Mich., El-Sayed hailed the event as an "honor and a privilege" and offered "hearty congratulations" to the mosques imam, Hassan al-Qazwini.
According to The Washington Free Beacon, the left-wing Senate hopeful appeared alongside Sheikh Fadhel Al-Sahlani, an Iraqi-born cleric who has publicly questioned the historical record of the Holocaust and celebrated Hamass Oct. 7 massacre in Israel.
The lavish 67,000-square-foot mosque, which El-Sayed described as "an incredible masjid," features five golden domes and was financed in part with $2 million from Iraqs prime minister.
El-Sayeds prominent role in the inauguration, and his embrace of its controversial leadership, is likely to intensify scrutiny of his judgment and his alliances at a moment when control of the Senate may hinge on Michigans outcome.
El-Sayed has already drawn criticism for campaigning with Hasan Piker, a Turkish-American influencer who infamously declared that "America deserved 9/11" and has argued that Israel is much worse than Hamas.
Now, his appearance with Al-Sahlani and al-Qazwini is raising further questions about why a major-party Senate candidate is aligning himself with figures who traffic in antisemitic rhetoric and praise for U.S.-designated terrorist organizations.
During his remarks at the mosque opening, El-Sayed used the occasion to attack Israel and U.S. policy, denouncing what he called "the ongoing genocide that is being perpetrated by our tax dollars."
He spoke before Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D., Mich.) and Al-Sahlani, who has asserted that the Jewish death toll of six million in the Holocaust "has been exaggerated" and has lauded Hamass Oct. 7 atrocities as evidence that "our movement" made "great change" in the Arab world and beyond.
The mosques founder, Hassan al-Qazwini, has a long record of incendiary statements that place him far outside the American mainstream.
The Iraqi-born cleric, whose father was handpicked by Irans first supreme leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, to serve in Irans judiciary, has repeatedly promoted conspiracy theories linking Israel to jihadist terrorism and has praised anti-Israel militants as heroes.
In a 2015 sermon, al-Qazwini claimed that "ISIS somehow is connected to Israel" and insisted that "ISIS is playing the role of the Zionist in the Muslim world."
He has also described Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) as an honorable man, "even though he is a Jew," a backhanded compliment that underscored his fixation on religious identity.
Sanderss presidential campaign later distanced itself from al-Qazwini, denouncing his "antisemitic conspiracy theories" and "toxic" rhetoric after the imam was allowed to introduce Sanders at a 2020 campaign event in Dearborn.
The episode highlighted how even progressive Democrats have found al-Qazwinis views too extreme, a contrast with El-Sayeds decision to celebrate him at the new mosques grand opening.
Last year, al-Qazwini escalated his rhetoric by calling for members of Congress who backed the Antisemitism Awareness Act to "be indicted and convicted of treason," branding them "stooges of Israel," the Washington Free Beacon reported.
He has also cheered on the Islamic Republic of Iran in its confrontation with the United States and Israel, aligning himself rhetorically with a regime that routinely chants "Death to America."
"Iran," al-Qazwini said on June 26, "stood firm, stood so firm, and it humiliated the most powerful man on earth."
In a March 24 sermon, he prayed in Arabic for Allah to "grant victory to our brothers in Iran" and to "inflict defeat upon Your Zionist enemies," according to an English translation of his remarks.
Al-Qazwini has not confined his support to Iran; he has also held memorial services for Hezbollah fighters and extolled the groups longtime leader, Hassan Nasrallah.
In a February 2025 sermon, he praised Nasrallahkilled in an Israeli airstrike in September 2024as a hero of the "resistance," predicting that his death would become "fuel to sustain the resistance against Israel."
"Victory belongs to the righteous," al-Qazwini said.
"The oppressors will perish, no matter how long it lasts."
On March 8, at the Islamic Institutes previous facility, al-Qazwini delivered a eulogy for Hezbollah fighters Ibrahim and Kassim Ghazali, who were killed in an Israeli strike in Lebanon.
There, he spoke with their brother, Ayman Ghazali, who went on to attack a Jewish school in West Bloomfield Township, Mich., four days after the memorial, the New York Times reported.
Al-Qazwinis positions on social issues also clash sharply with the progressive image El-Sayed projects on the campaign trail.
In 2015, the imam condemned the Supreme Courts decision legalizing same-sex marriage as a "sad moment" in Americas history, criticized "the lobbying of homosexual groups," and labeled homosexuality "a form of disorder," a theme he revisited in a June 22 sermon opposing the normalization of homosexuality.
Despite this record, El-Sayed offered a "hearty congratulations to Sayed Imam Qazwini" during the mosques grand opening, using the event as an opportunity to court voters in Michigans sizable Muslim and Arab communities centered in Dearborn and Dearborn Heights.
His outreach underscores a political calculation: appealing to a concentrated bloc of voters even when its most visible religious leaders espouse views that are hostile to Israel, to Americas allies, and to core Western values.
El-Sayed has been notably cautious about addressing issues related to Islamic extremism, apparently out of concern that doing so would alienate Dearborns majority-Muslim electorate, which the Wall Street Journal has described as "America's Jihad Capital."
During a March strategy call, he told campaign staff he would avoid commenting on the killing of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei so as not to upset voters in Dearborn, according to audio obtained by the Free Beacon.
"There are a lot of people in Dearborn who are sad," El-Sayed said.
His reluctance to speak plainly about a hostile foreign theocrats death reflects a broader pattern in which identity politics and electoral math seem to outweigh clear moral judgment.
In another strategy call following the Ghazali synagogue attack, El-Sayed acknowledged that issuing a statement condemning the assault was "a risk," Punchbowl News reported.
While he did denounce the attack, he also rationalized it by saying that "hurt people hurt people," a formulation critics see as minimizing antisemitic violence at a time of rising attacks on Jewish institutions.
El-Sayeds campaign did not respond to a request for comment.
As Michigan voters weigh who should represent them in the Senate, his embrace of radical clerics, his silence on key questions of extremism, and his willingness to hedge on basic issues of terrorism and antisemitism are likely to remain at the center of a race with national implications.
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