National Review op-ed: El-Sayed’s JFK comparison reflects ‘obvious anti-Catholicism’

Michigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed’s comparison of questions about his views on the Muslim Brotherhood to the religious prejudice faced by former President John F. Kennedy reflects anti-Catholicism and sidesteps legitimate questions, National Review columnist Kathryn Jean Lopez argued in a recent opinion piece.

“We could afford to be a little more outraged about the Democratic candidate’s JFK Catholicism comparison,” Lopez, a Catholic, wrote in her Oct. 26 column, “Anti-Catholicism Lives with El-Sayed in Michigan.”

She began by criticizing an Oct. 17 town hall exchange in Caro, Michigan, where an audience member who identified himself as Tommy asked El-Sayed whether he would disavow the Muslim Brotherhood. 

“Yeah, absolutely,” El-Sayed responded, before pivoting, “Why are you asking the question?” 

“Because they are a terrorist group,” Tommy said, to which El-Sayed asked, “But what are you implying? Do you assume that I wouldn’t?”

“Here’s the thing. You are asking the question because implicitly you assume that I will have dual loyalties, right? You assume that somehow, I wouldn’t disavow. Or that I’ll have some higher-order allegiance than to the Constitution, correct? Tommy, is that what you imply?”

Tommy responded, “Yes.”

“No, no, no, no. Why would you think that about me?” El-Sayed asked. When Tommy reiterated that he had not heard him disavow the group, the candidate responded, “But I just did.”

“But why would you actually think that? Why would you? . . . Have you asked everybody in your life if they disavow them?” El-Sayed continued.

El-Sayed went on to compare the exchange to questions Kennedy faced about whether his Catholic faith would influence his presidency.

“When JFK ran, they said the country would never elect a Catholic president,” El-Sayed said, adding that Kennedy “was asked about whether his allegiance would be to the Constitution or to the pope and the Vatican.”

Lopez argued that El-Sayed’s attacks are “bigoted,” saying there is “an obvious anti-Catholicism” to treating questions about the Muslim Brotherhood — whose Egyptian branch the U.S. has designated a terrorist group — as equivalent to questions about allegiance to the pope.

El-Sayed also invoked the Kennedy comparison a second time during an Oct. 17 MS NOW interview, as Zeale News previously reported.

>> Catholic commentator challenges El-Sayed’s comparison to JFK: ‘You’re no Jack Kennedy’ <<

Lopez called El-Sayed’s Kennedy talk “one long distraction” from questions about his views on the Muslim Brotherhood, pointing to a 2011 Huffington Post essay in which he defended the organization’s possible rise to power in Egypt. Lopez argued that the essay provided a substantive reason to question him about the group.

The U.S. Treasury Department designated the Muslim Brotherhood’s Egyptian and Jordanian branches as Specially Designated Global Terrorists in January, citing their material support for Hamas.

Lopez also cited concerns about El-Sayed’s campaign donations and his mother’s reported ties to the organization. As Zeale News previously reported, El-Sayed’s half-sister wrote in a 2012 post on X that she “had an amazing talk with my mom about her activism in the Muslim Brotherhood during the early 70s while she was in college #respect.”

Lopez said, “There’s more than enough reason to ask questions.”

>> NBC presses Democrat Abdul El-Sayed over alleged family ties to Muslim Brotherhood <<

El-Sayed has denied having ties to the Muslim Brotherhood. In an Oct. 14 NBC interview, he also rejected allegations about their mother’s purported support for the group, saying his mother did not raise him. 

Lopez argued that El-Sayed does resemble Kennedy in one respect: invoking positions at odds with his faith to reassure voters that religion would not dictate his public decisions. She wrote that the Democrat is “very much like Kennedy when he promises, essentially, to be a bad Muslim.”

She pointed to El-Sayed’s invocation of his support for abortion and the LGBT agenda to rebut suggestions of divided loyalties, comparing it to Kennedy’s assurances that his Catholic beliefs would not govern his presidency.

She quoted Catholic author and papal biographer George Weigel’s assessment: “For JFK, Catholicism was more of an ethnic marker than a matter of personal conviction.”

“In his famous speech to Protestant ministers in Houston, Kennedy laid the groundwork for a generation of Catholic politicians who would say they are ‘personally opposed’ to abortion but that those values have no impact on their public life,” Lopez wrote.

She concluded that voters should judge El-Sayed on his positions and credibility rather than his religion.

“Michigan should not reject El-Sayed because he is Muslim, but rather because he’s a chameleon, blending into some of our most harmful euphemisms and distractions,” she wrote. “And, honestly, it’s more than reasonable — and entirely unbigoted — to still wonder what he really thinks about the Muslim Brotherhood.”

>> Free Press op-ed: Why Democrats should reject Abdul El-Sayed <<