DETROIT — Michigan Senate hopeful Dr. Abdul El-Sayed waxed poetic at a Saturday Islamic convention that has faced criticism for inviting multiple 9/11 conspiracy theorists — six days before the 25th anniversary of the devastating terrorist attacks.
The lefty pol delivered remarks alongside “The Young Turks” founder Cenk Uygur and Muslim cleric Zaid Shakir — both of whom have questioned the government’s narrative of the Sept. 11 attacks — at the Islamic Society of North America’s annual convention in Detroit Saturday night.
El-Sayed faced heat earlier this week after a since-deleted tweet resurfaced from Sept. 11, 2021 where he mourned the lives lost on 9/11 and trashed America in the process.
But the democratic hopeful remained mum on the topic Saturday and instead used the panel as a platform to focus on anti-Muslim hate across the country.
“We found ourselves in a moment now where, as people point to us, Muslim Americans, they want to tell us that we don’t belong,” El-Sayed remarked to the crowd of about 1,000 attendees.
“They want to tell us that this country is not ours. They want to tell us that because of our names or how we pray, that somehow we are less than.”
The aspiring senator praised his home state for not showing him similar bias as he continues to trek around Michigan on his campaign.
“Michiganders don’t care how you pray; they care what you pray for and what you hope for,” he said.
“They don’t care what your name is; they care if you care to know their name. Good-hearted people, open-minded, big-hearted, asking how we can come together beyond our differences.”
While El-Sayed remained tight-lipped to avoid making any controversial statements, his fellow panelists were more fired up.
Uygur criticized the US’s support for Israel, lauding “it is unbearable to me as an American,” and referred to the horrifying October 7 attacks in a rather flippant way.
“‘Oh my god, on October 7, the worst thing since the Holocaust,’” he snarked about the mainstream media’s coverage of the attacks on Israel.
“They make it sound like the Palestinians are occupying the Israelis rather than the other way around,” Uygur claimed. “No, I’m not going to let them get away with that anymore.”
“None of us are going to let them get away with that anymore,” the controversial speaker warned. “But they’re going to have to come through me first.”
Uygur, who is the uncle of notorious streamer Hasan Piker, is no stranger to making outlandish statements, sharing in February that “I no longer believe [the] official 9/11 story,” in a shocking X post.
“Two paper passports did not burn and were found on the rubble but it was so hot WTC7 burned down across the street. Nonsense,” he wrote.
Similarly, Shakir has previously argued that there are “glaring weaknesses and inconsistencies” with the official account of what happened in the 9/11 attacks.
He complained in an article that “9/11 has been used by both the government and a significant segment of the Christian Right in this country, along with their allies, to launch a war on Islam.”
