Catholic commentator challenges El-Sayed’s comparison to JFK: ‘You’re no Jack Kennedy’
Ashley McGuire argued that the Michigan Democrat’s campaign is “decidedly not about what JFK faced in 1960. It’s about serious allegations that he refuses to face today.”
A Catholic commentator criticized Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed for comparing scrutiny of his alleged Muslim Brotherhood ties to anti-Catholic prejudice former president John F. Kennedy faced, arguing that questions about political associations differ from attacks on a candidate’s faith.
In an Oct. 22 Daily Wire opinion piece titled “Abdul El-Sayed, You’re No Jack Kennedy,” Ashley McGuire, a senior fellow at The Catholic Association, accused El-Sayed of invoking the former president to deflect scrutiny of his record and alleged associations.
The column followed an Oct. 17 interview with MS NOW’s Ali Velshi, who asked El-Sayed how he responds to questions about the Muslim Brotherhood, terrorism, and radical Islamism.
“Look, at the end of the day, the whole reason this question is being asked is to insinuate that somehow I have dual loyalties,” El-Sayed responded.
He added, “When John F. Kennedy ran for president, he was asked whether his allegiance would be to the Constitution, or to the Pope and the Vatican, because he would have been the first Catholic president.”
The Michigan Democrat also invoked Kennedy during an Oct. 17 town hall in Caro, Michigan, after a voter asked whether he would disavow the Muslim Brotherhood. El-Sayed initially answered, “Sure. Yeah, absolutely,” before questioning why the voter had asked and comparing the scrutiny to Kennedy’s experience.
El-Sayed has also portrayed political attacks from President Donald Trump and other Republicans as targeting his Muslim faith. In an Oct. 19 social media post sharing his campaign’s “Prayer” ad, El-Sayed said, “Faith is a thing there’s just too little of in Washington.”
McGuire rejected El-Sayed’s comparison, arguing that suspicions directed at Kennedy because of his Catholicism differ from questions about a candidate’s political statements, donors, and alleged connections.
“Where to start,” McGuire wrote. “We can start with the suggestion that concerns about allegiance to the Pope are akin to concerns about allegiance to a terrorist network as being…well, shaky? More like stunningly offensive.”
McGuire argued that El-Sayed has twice tried to use Kennedy “as a body shield for legitimate questions that are not rooted in religious bigotry, as were biases faced by JFK,” but instead stem from what she described as legitimate concerns about support for terrorism and alleged family connections.
Among the allegations she cited were past comments from El-Sayed’s half-sister, Eman Abdelhadi, who wrote in a 2012 X post that her “family has long been MB (Muslim Brotherhood), but I’ve always felt that it has navigated the political sphere poorly/destructively.”
The U.S. in January designated the Muslim Brotherhood’s Egyptian and Jordanian branches as Specially Designated Global Terrorists, citing material support for Hamas.
McGuire also accused El-Sayed’s biological mother of working “for an organization that financed terrorism,” which she said wired funds to Osama bin Laden in the lead-up to the Sept. 11 attack. She argued in her report that El-Sayed’s sister-in-law appeared on the terrorist watch list, his father-in-law has ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, and that he has voiced support for a Muslim Brotherhood candidate in Egypt. She also alleged he accepted money from the group.
El-Sayed has denied that he or his family have ties to the organization. He said in an Oct. 14 interview that he had never discussed the matter with his biological mother, who did not raise him.
>> NBC presses Democrat Abdul El-Sayed over alleged family ties to Muslim Brotherhood <<
McGuire also criticized El-Sayed’s response to Fox News host Jesse Watters during an Aug. 24 interview about Sharia law, when the candidate invoked Catholic canon law.
“Nobody is trying to push Sharia law on anyone else, just like I hope nobody is trying to push Canon law on anybody else, because we live in an America where you should have the freedom of religion,” El-Sayed said.
“Suggesting that questions about his ties to terrorism are out of bounds, being akin to what JFK dealt with as a Catholic in the 1960s, isn’t just an insult to history,” McGuire wrote. “It’s worse, because El-Sayed essentially suggests that inquiring about those ties is religious bigotry itself.”
McGuire argued that El-Sayed’s comparison makes “a mockery of actual religious freedom.”
“El-Sayed’s campaign is decidedly not about what JFK faced in 1960,” she concluded. “It’s about serious allegations that he refuses to face today.”
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