El-Sayed To Headline Convention With Cleric Who Loves Child Marriage

Michigan Democrat Abdul El-Sayed will spend Labor Day weekend speaking at a Muslim conference alongside an antisemitic cleric who said he forced his 13-year-old niece into marriage.

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El-Sayed, the Democratic U.S. Senate nominee in Michigan, is slated to speak at the Islamic Society of North America’s annual convention, held in Detroit from September 4-7, The Washington Free Beacon reported. ISNA was named an unindicted co-conspirator in the 2007 federal prosecution of the Holy Land Foundation, and a judge ruled in 2009 that the government had presented “ample evidence” tying the group to Hamas.

Also on the convention roster is Tariq Masood, a Pakistani cleric who has urged followers to marry off their young female relatives, citing his own niece’s marriage at 13.

Masood is scheduled to moderate a panel on “avoiding mental illness in youth” aimed at addressing how parents “can prevent or minimize the impact of any trauma leading to a mental illness.” He will moderate that session alongside ISNA president Syed Imtiaz Ahmad, who is separately listed on El-Sayed’s own panel, according to the convention itinerary.

Masood has also preached against Jews. In a 2024 sermon titled “The Final Humiliation of the Jews,” he said Jews’ “cunning minds” had worked to bring the world under their control, according to translations reviewed by the Free Beacon. “The Quran condemns Jews,” he said, adding that “not all Jews are the same” before claiming no other community in the world matched Jews for “evil and turmoil.”

The El-Sayed campaign told The Daily Wire on Saturday that the Democrat “does not endorse” anyone speaking at the conference.

“Abdul is not affiliated with and does not endorse any other participant of the conference,” a spokeswoman for the campaign said. “He is scheduled to participate in a different panel at the ISNA conference to speak on unity and commitment to justice in public service.”

El-Sayed is scheduled to speak on a panel titled “Cultivating God Awareness in a Turmoiled America.” Ahmad is listed on that panel as well, alongside Cenk Uygur, The Young Turks founder and uncle of America-hating streamer Hasan Piker.

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El-Sayed’s panel discussion is advertised as a way to push Muslim Americans and their faith into the public square.

“In this storm, remaining principled, morally clear, and emotionally steady is essential for Muslim Americans,” the ISNA wrote. “ISNA meets the moment by framing taqwa (God-Awareness) not only as personal piety but as a public strategy for success. It urges the Muslim community to mobilize taqwa to uphold unity, ethical integrity, and an uncompromised commitment to justice. This session turns taqwa into actionable guidance, equipping participants not merely to survive but to thrive in workplaces, schools, digital spaces, and community life — and to succeed on their own terms.”

El-Sayed’s ties to ISNA are also familial and financial. His father-in-law, Tayeb Jukaku, has sat on the group’s founders committee since at least 2007 and also serves on the board of CAIR’s Michigan chapter, according to the Free Beacon. Jukaku has given $300,000 to a super PAC backing El-Sayed’s Senate bid.

Another scheduled speaker is Siraj Wahhaj, a Brooklyn imam who testified as a character witness for Omar Abdel-Rahman, the “blind sheikh” convicted in 1995 of plotting a wave of New York terror attacks. Prosecutors listed Wahhaj among roughly 170 people who might be named as co-conspirators in that case, though he was never charged and the lead prosecutor has said inclusion on the list did not mean the government alleged he was a conspirator.

The leftist Democratic Senate nominee narrowly won his party’s primary earlier this month pushing a far-Left agenda that includes Medicare for all and abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement. In the recent past, he has also called to defund the police and restructure the U.S. Supreme Court, both issues that are pushed by the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA). While El-Sayed has said that he doesn’t identify as a socialist, the Democrat rode a wave of DSA support in his primary election.

El-Sayed campaigned alongside Hasan Piker ahead of the primary and has resisted calls to cut ties with him, dismissing Piker’s claim that “America deserved 9/11” as a “dumb statement.” Asked on Meet the Press whether he would campaign with the communist streamer again, El-Sayed said he was “a lot more focused on who I’m campaigning to.”

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El-Sayed faces Republican Mike Rogers in the November general election.