Michigan U.S. Senate Candidate A. M. El-Sayed: Shariah Compliance or the Easy Way?
Abdulrahman Mohamed El-Sayed is the Democrat candidate in the 2026 election to represent Michigan the U.S. Senate.
On his campaign website one finds, in the “Money Out of Politics” section, a subsection titled “Civil Rights & Liberties.” This subsection boldly starts out: “Nobody is above our constitution.”[1]
This of course made me immediately think of my Muslim Oath Project,[2] in which, starting in December 2019, I sent four questions to Muslim political candidates and office holders. Each question required a choice between the U.S. Constitution/American Law or Islamic Doctrine. Of the 268 such candidates/office holders I have contacted to date, only 17 have expressed support for the U.S. Constitution/American Law over Islamic Doctrine; however, six of those 17 would not give me permission to mention their names. Would El-Sayed become the eighteenth to express support for the U.S. Constitution/American Law over Islamic Doctrine? His campaign page made it sound promising.
On August 7, 2026, I sent the following email to info@abdulforsenate.com, El-Sayed’s campaign email address:
Mr. El-Sayed,
I have written extensively about Islam (six books and numerous articles and brochures) and think it important that non-Muslims gain a better understanding of Islam. If you are elected to public office you will take an oath of office that includes swearing, or affirming, to support the United States Constitution. With that in mind, I am interested in your response, as a candidate who follows the religion of Islam, to the following questions:
No. 1: Will you go on record now and state that our 1st Amendment right to freedom of speech gives the right to anyone in the United States to criticize or disagree with your prophet Muhammad, and will you also go on record now and state that you support and defend anyone’s right to criticize or disagree with your prophet Muhammad, and that you condemn anyone who threatens death or physical harm to another person who is exercising that right?
No. 2: Our 1st Amendment guarantees freedom of religion in the United States. As part of that freedom, anyone in the United States has the right to join or leave any religion, or have no religion at all. Will you go on record now and state that you support and defend the idea that in the United States a Muslim has not only the freedom to leave Islam, but to do so without fear of physical harm, and will you also go on record now and state that you condemn anyone who threatens physical harm to a Muslim who is exercising that freedom?
No. 3: According to the words of Allah found in Koran 5:38 and the teachings of your prophet Muhammad, amputation of a hand is an acceptable punishment for theft. But our U.S. Constitution, which consists of man-made laws, has the 8th Amendment that prohibits cruel and unusual punishment such as this. Do you agree with Allah and your prophet Muhammad that amputation of a hand is an acceptable punishment for theft in the United States, or do you believe that our man-made laws prohibiting such punishments are true laws and are to be followed instead of this 7th Century command of Allah and teaching of Muhammad?
No. 4: According to the words of Allah found in Koran 4:3, Muslim men are allowed, but not required, to be married to up to four wives. Being married to more than one wife in the United States is illegal according to our man-made bigamy laws. Do you agree with Allah that it is legal for a Muslim man in the United States to be married to more than one woman, or do you believe that our man-made laws prohibiting bigamy are true laws and are to be followed instead of this 7th Century command of Allah.
I look forward to your responses.
Stephen M. Kirby, PhD
I promptly received an automated email reply thanking me for reaching out, referring me to a “frequently asked questions” section, and pointing out that if my inquiry was not addressed there, one of El-Sayed’s “team members” would be in touch, “as necessary.”
El-Sayed’s team apparently felt it was not necessary. Having received no reply, on August 12 I sent another email to El-Sayed, using the “info” email address and adding another address he had listed, press@abdulforsenate.com. My email started out:
Mr. El-Sayed,
In your automated email response, dated August 7, 2026, you thanked me for reaching out and noted that if my inquiry was not addressed in the “frequently asked questions” section, one of your team members would “be in touch as necessary.” Since my four questions were not addressed in the FAQ section, and I have not yet heard from any of your team members, I am contacting you again and request your response to my questions…
I then repeated the information that had been in the first email, sent the second email, and quickly received the same automated response I had received to my first email. As of August 18th, I have not received any further responses.
One would have thought, given the statement on his website that “Nobody is above our constitution,” the response from El-Sayed would have been prompt and easy for each question: the U.S Constitution/American Law over Islamic Doctrine. But it was not. Why?
Perhaps the answer can be found in a statement El-Sayed made in 2009 when he used a “Shariah-compliant” “mortgage-alternative arrangement” to buy a condominium in Ann Arbor, MI:
“Ultimately, the question is,” Mr. El-Sayed, 24, said in an interview, “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. Not because of fear but because of obligation.”[3]
He was obliged to be “Shariah-compliant” in everything he did in his life. One cannot be “Shariah-compliant” and place our U.S. Constitution/American Law over Islamic Doctrine. Instead of becoming Number 18, Abdulrahman Mohamed El-Sayed is now Number 269.
AUTHOR
Dr. Stephen M. Kirby is the author of six books and numerous articles about Islam. His latest book is Islamic Doctrine versus the U.S. Constitution: The Dilemma for Muslim Public Officials.
SOURCES:
[1] https://abdulforsenate.com/priority/money-out-of-politics/#h-civil-rights-amp-liberties
[2] https://www.liberato.us/muslim-oath-project.html
[3] Samuel G. Freedman, “A Hometown Bank Heeds a Call to Serve Its Islamic Clients,” The New York Times, March 6, 2009, https://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/07/us/07religion.html?searchResultPosition=1.
©2026 Dr. Stephen M. Kirby. All rights reserved.
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