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DETROIT, MICHIGAN — Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed headlined an Islamic conference over Labor Day weekend where the United States was described as an empire in decline, early Islamic conquests were praised and the aftermath of 9/11 was framed around Islamophobia and discrimination.
The event, held annually by the Islamic Society of North America, featured a range of speakers discussing topics from Muslim civic participation to the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas. Over the course of the conference’s speeches and panel discussions, participants took positions that were generally critical of the United States and the broader Western world and expressed opinions that some may regard as extreme.
Fox News Digital attended the event over the weekend, sitting in on many of the panels held on Saturday and Sunday before and after El-Sayed’s speech. The Michigan Democrat is running in one of the most hotly contested Senate races of the 2026 cycle, the outcome of which may decide control of the Senate.
At one panel dubbed “Rising Islamophobia in the U.S.,” a speaker described recently passed legislation that could bar colleges participating in certain commercial boycotts of Israel from receiving some federal higher-education funds as “an anti-Muslim bill.”
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Abdul El-Sayed’s campaign running a booth at the Islamic Society of North America’s annual conference. (Robert Schmad/Fox News Digital) ((Robert Schmad/Fox News Digital))
Shortly after that, a man in the audience wearing a Pakistani flag pin stood up and called for a fatwa to be issued against the bipartisan group of lawmakers who voted for the bil. A fatwa is a religious ruling or opinion that can range from a formal condemnation to, in some cases, a call for or justification of violence.
The legislation was introduced by Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., and co-sponsored by Rep. Josh Gottheimer, D-N.J.
After the man called for a fatwa against members of Congress, members of the audience — and one panelist — applauded.
Earlier during the same discussion, a panelist criticized Congress for moving to censure Reps. Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib for making “the most lighthearted comments”
Tlaib was censured in part for endorsing the phrase “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” — which calls for the destruction of Israel as bounded by the Jordan River in the east and the Mediterranean Sea in the west. Critics characterized the phrase as a call for ethnic cleansing while the congresswoman defended it as “an aspirational call for freedom, human rights and peaceful coexistence.”
ISNA is a nonprofit Muslim religious organization established in 1981 to provide America’s growing Muslim population with a platform for civic coordination and education. Detroit, where the event took place, is situated in a metropolitan area that has a significant Arab American population concentrated in areas such as Dearborn and Hamtramck.
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A breakout session at the ISNA’s annual conference. (Robert Schmad/Fox News Digital) ((Robert Schmad/Fox News Digital))
Panelists also accused billionaire Elon Musk of funding a white supremacist global anti-Muslim movement, suggested that some of the narrative regarding 9/11 taught in American schools has been “debunked,” and asserted that Muslims were treated unfairly in the wake of the 2001 attacks.
Criticism of America’s response to 9/11 surfaced repeatedly across the conference’s events and breakout sessions. One speaker asserted that one of the most important things to reflect on as the 25th anniversary of 9/11 approaches is that “Islamophobia is at an all-time high.” Another called the War on Terror, a series of post-9/11 military operations that claimed the lives of over 7,000 U.S. military personnel, the “War of Terror.”
El-Sayed has sought to moderate his public image since launching his Senate campaign, even as he has maintained ties to prominent socialists and socialist-aligned activists. His attendance at the recent ISNA conference is the latest in a series of associations that have drawn criticism, including ties to Nation of Islam figures, Muslim clerics accused of expressing support for terrorist organizations and activists on the socialist left.
In response to these charges, the Democrat has pointed out that the GOP Senate nominee Mike Rogers himself has links to individuals who echo conspiracy theories about the 2020 election or who have called for bans on gay marriage.
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A speech being delivered at the Islamic Society of North America’s annual conference. (Robert Schmad/Fox News Digital) ((Robert Schmad/Fox News Digital))
Before the event, El-Sayed’s campaign moved to distance the candidate from other conference speakers.
“Abdul is not affiliated with and does not endorse any other participant of the conference,” a spokeswoman for his campaign told media outlets in the lead up to the event.
The statement followed reports that he would appear alongside Islamic clerics who defended child marriage and praised U.S.-designated terrorist organizations, including al Qaeda. Of the controversial speakers, only the cleric who had defended child marriage was ultimately disinvited, the Washington Free Beacon previously reported.
ISNA appeared to anticipate scrutiny over some of the speakers it invited to the conference. In the conference venue’s main hallway, the organization posted a prominent sign which read “ISNA does not endorse the actions of convention participants and explicitly disclaims any responsibility for the views expressed, information provided, or materials displayed, sold or distributed by convention speakers, performers, exhibitors, vendors, or attendees.”
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Disclaimer placard at the ISNA’s annual conference. (Robert Schmad/Fox News Digital) ((Robert Schmad/Fox News Digital))
While ISNA sought to distance itself from the controversial views expressed by some conference speakers, the organization itself took actions that also drew scrutiny.
Fox News Digital spoke to three Christian evangelists outside the conference who claimed they were removed from it without warning. Each of them said they were simply having conversations with individuals who wanted to speak with them before they were escorted outside by security.
Attendance at the conference was open to people of all faiths, and registration did not require attendees to be Muslim. The conference also held an interfaith banquet on Sunday.
The disclaimer took on added significance in light of books available for purchase at the conference’s on-site bazaar. Fox News Digital found books that defended Islamic warfare while portraying Christianity as uniquely violent.
“Christians are the last people on earth who should bring the charge of bloodshed and cruelty against followers of any other system, for it is a well-established fact that no religion known to history has such a horrible sanguinary record as church Christianity,” one book sold at the conference reads.
Another book argued that all Islamic warfare is defensive, defended non-Muslims being forced to pay a discriminatory tax and claimed that Christian civilization has killed nearly 200 million people by attributing wars that did not have religious motivations or were not initiated by Christians. The French Revolution, which was instigated by individuals hostile to Christianity, for instance, is counted toward Christianity’s death count. The Korean War, which was launched by communist North Korea, is also counted toward the body count of Christianity.
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A selection of books at the ISNA’s annual conference. (Robert Schmad/Fox News Digital) ((Robert Schmad/Fox News Digital))
The conference also featured advertisements for “Sharia-compliant” mortgages and other financial products.
El-Sayed held a quasi-celebrity status among the conference’s attendees. Campaign buttons were nearly ubiquitous at the conference and his campaign’s booth was easily the busiest of those located in the main hall, Fox News Digital found.
When the Senate hopeful walked onto stage to address the conference, he was greeted with a thunderous standing ovation. Calls of “we love you” rang out from the crowd.
El-Sayed’s speech was ultimately measured and largely focused on unity, representation and the idea that Muslim and American identities are compatible.
“As we leave here tonight, I’ve got a challenge for each and every one of you,” El-Sayed said with a measured cadence reminiscent of former President Barack Obama. “It’s the question of how you show up in the spaces in which you show up everyday, as wholly and 100% yourself. Because we are a community as Muslim Americans who believe in the rhyming of our Muslim ideals and our American ideals. That those two things are not mutually exclusive, in fact, that at their best being Muslim makes us better Americans and being Muslim enables us to be better Americans.”
‘DESTROYING THE AMERICAN WAY OF LIFE’: EL-SAYED’S POLITICAL ORBIT COMPLICATES EFFORT TO MODERATE HIS IMAGE
Attendees look on as a cleric in traditional garb speaks. (Robert Schmad/Fox News Digital) ((Robert Schmad/Fox News Digital))
But elsewhere at the conference, speakers offered a markedly different assessment of America and its place in the world.
“The world has become multipolar and we see almost like the fear and insecurity that the empire has at this moment. If we think through the lens of the U.S. So I like to think that we are on the very end of an ending empire,” an academic speaking at a session about the conflict between Israel and Hamas said. “I’m very positive about it.”
The same panelist later argued that referring to the river next to Detroit as the “Detroit River” was an immoral act of colonialism because Native Americans had a different name for the waterway.
In a similar vein, a speaker at one of the conference’s main sessions criticized American foreign policy following the 9/11 terrorist attacks, then credited the “TikTok generation” with mobilizing in favor of Palestinians following the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks.
Some speakers, however, made a clear effort to connect El-Sayed’s socialist project with his Islamic faith.
“Islam historically was not just spread by the instance of Dawah, it was spread by socialism,” a cleric who would go on to speak positively about early Islamic conquests, said.
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ISNA declined comment. The El-Sayed campaign did not respond to requests for comment after being reached by Fox News Digital on Wednesday.
