For A Man With No Ties to the Muslim Brotherhood ...

Abdul El-Sayed insisted on NBC’s Meet the Press that he has no ties to the Muslim Brotherhood. His sister, his mother, his father-in-law, and his campaign funding keep saying otherwise, while the mainstream media still has little interest in investigating the issue.

Chuck Ross at the Washington Free Beacon continues to fill that gap today. Having tracked down most of El-Sayed’s indirect connections to the Muslim Brotherhood, Ross dug up a more direct interest from 2021. In a since-deleted Substack essay, El-Sayed painted police unions’ rejection of COVID vaccination requirements as a form of government tyranny, comparing it to the arrest of his friend Mohammed Soltan in Egypt. 

And guess why Soltan got arrested? Oh, let’s not always see the same hands ...

In a 2021 article on a since-deleted Substack account, the left-wing Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed defended a man he described as his "friend" after he was jailed for funding the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood. The man, Mohamed Soltan, is the son of a senior Muslim Brotherhood official who called to kill "those Zionists" and argued for "obliterating America."

The October 2021 article, headlined "The hypocrisy of police rejecting vaccine requirements," warned of the "bluntest form of government power" wielded by police in the United States, asking readers to "imagine living long ago under a monarch whose caprice could have you arbitrarily taxed … or jailed or hanged."

"But you don't even have to go back in time," El-Sayed continued. "Go to Egypt, where the personal whims of a dictator may mean you'll find yourself in the bowels of an Egyptian prison, as happened to my friend Mohamed Soltan, an American citizen."

Well, Soltan wasn’t just an American citizen. Soltan and his father were high-ranking members of the Muslim Brotherhood, which had just attempted a coup to restore Mohamed Morsi to the Egyptian presidency. Current ruler Abdel Fattah al-Sisi had re-suppressed the Muslim Brotherhood and actively pursued them as a terrorist organization. Soltan got tried and convicted for a little more than being anti-vax, although he was released soon afterward and returned to the US:

Soltan was born in Egypt to Salah Soltan, a former professor of Islamic Law at Cairo University and "senior member" of the Muslim Brotherhood. The elder Soltan was one of 50 Muslim Brotherhood leaders charged with spearheading the 2013 protests aimed at reinstating Egypt's deposed president, Mohamed Morsi, a longtime Brotherhood leader who chaired the Islamic group's Freedom and Justice Party. Mohamed Soltan was sentenced to life in prison in Egypt, according to NBC News, which reported that he "faced terrorism-related charges, including belonging to the now-banned Muslim Brotherhood." ABC News described Soltanas "one of the main liaisons" between the Muslim Brotherhood and the press.

Speaking of ties, Ross notes that the two shared a similar path in the US, which highlights Soltan’s status as El-Sayed’s ‘friend’. The Midwesterner also picked up on that thread while following the money:

Mohamed Soltan, the 38-year-old president of the American Committee for Middle East Rights, is funneling funds to El-Sayed’s Abdul for U.S. Senate candidate committee as ACMER contributes to Fighting for Michigan PAC, the super PAC backing the former Wayne County health official. ...

Federal Election Commission reports show ACMER sent Fighting for Michigan PAC $25,000 on June 12, following two contributions from Mohamed Soltan to Abdul for U.S. Senate on April 15.

The individual contribution constitutes the maximum permitted by federal election law.

Other ACMER officials also contributed to El-Sayed’s effort to become the first Muslim Senator in U.S. history.

ACMER Treasurer Muna Jondy contributed $15,000 to Fighting for Michigan PAC on June 7, and $7,000 to Abdul for U.S. Senate on June 24, while ACMER Executive Director Kristina Blyad gave $1,000 to Abdul for U.S. Senate on February 13.

Soltan fils has since attempted to distance both himself and his father from the Muslim Brotherhood. He blamed an uncle in the Egyptian police for not freeing both of them in a 2019 NY Times essay, claiming that his father was a progressive Islamic philosopher rather than a hardline Islamist:

I am not a member of the Muslim Brotherhood. My father, a respected authority on Islamic jurisprudence, lived most of his life outside of Egypt but was affiliated with a progressive, moderate vision of Islamism. Most important, we both opposed the coup.

I can only guess that my uncle thought the stability of Egypt required him to stand by the crackdown or that he was afraid of associating with his now-dissident relatives. He never came, not even to visit, even though a visit from him could have eased the conditions of my imprisonment.

With every insult, every incident of torture, my resentment grew. How could my own uncle sleep in the comfort of his home knowing his nephew and brother-in-law were facing so much injustice? He was supposed to be better than the rest.

Ross begs to differ – and he has receipts:

Salah Soltan, however, has long been known as a "prominent Muslim Brotherhood member." He "gained notoriety" in 2013 after posting a letter on behalf of the Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party "apologizing for the mistakes the Muslim Brotherhood has made" as it ruled over Egypt during Morsi's brief presidency, according to Egyptian media reports. In 2023, the Muslim Brotherhood released a statementthanking a slew of left-wing groups in the United States that called for Salah Soltan's release from prison and identified him as "the professor of Sharia (Islamic Law) at Cairo University and founder and former president of the Islamic American University (IAU) in Michigan."

The elder Soltan, meanwhile, has a long history of making extreme antisemitic statements. In 2011, he issued an Islamic religious decree ordering the death of Israel's ambassador and of "Zionists" traveling to Egypt, saying, "As someone who has studied Islamic law, specializing in Islamic jurisprudence, I am calling to kill the [Israeli] ambassador, not just expel him," according to a translation provided by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI). "Any Zionist—tourist or other—who enters Egypt must be killed. … We stress that this fatwa is directed only toward those Zionists, who destroyed our country, killed our people, and shed our blood on our land."

Yeah, that sounds very ‘moderate’ and  'progressive.’ Issuing fatwas for the murder of a diplomat is such an enlightened position! 

El-Sayed keeps insisting that he has no ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, but the company he keeps says otherwise. So does the money trail. Mike Rogers needs to make sure that Michigan voters know this, and he’s already on that task. 

Where does Abdul’s money come from? Radical extremists and KNOWN TERROR ORGANIZATIONS. He can’t be let anywhere near the US Senate. https://t.co/PeJB6Om0KB

— Mike Rogers (@MikeRogersForMI) October 13, 2026

The latest episode of The Ed Morrissey Show podcast is now up! Today's show features:

• The New York Times couldn't be bothered to look into James Talarico's absence from the campaign trail. They're all over the GOP pouncing, however. 
• Andrew Malcolm and I discuss the 'credibility' of the paper and the media in general on the Talarico story. We also discuss the upcoming execution of Nidal Hasan and whether live-streaming it is a good idea.  

The Ed Morrissey Show is now a fully downloadable and streamable show at  Spotify, Apple Podcasts, the TEMS Podcast YouTube channel, and on Rumble and our own in-house portal at the #TEMS page!

Editor’s Note: The 2026 Midterms will determine the fate of President Trump’s America First agenda. Republicans must maintain control of both chambers of Congress.

Help HotAir continue to report on the Democrats’ radicalism and inform voters as our nation faces a crossroads. Join HotAir VIP and use promo code FIGHT to receive 60% off your membership.