Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed confirmed this Saturday that his sister-in-law, Mariam Jukaku, was on the federal terrorist watch list. He told reporters she was removed from the list in 2016. This admission came after Fox News senior correspondent Mike Tobin confronted him with court documents in a hallway.
El-Sayed said Jukaku “did nothing wrong and was captured on that and then sued and got off,” according to Breitbart. He claimed the lawsuit proved she was innocent of any wrongdoing. However, Fox News Digital reported that a federal appeals court overturned the ruling favoring the plaintiffs in 2021. In 2017, a distinct legal action pursuing compensation was rejected.
The Family Narrative on the Trail
While on the campaign trail, El-Sayed has carefully curated a family story that leaves out his birth mother. New York Post reports he uses videos featuring his white stepmother and her parents for fundraising appeals. He insisted to NBC Nightly News this week, “I wasn’t raised by my mother.”
His biological mother is Fatten Elkomy, who worked for the Islamic American Relief Agency. Federal court documents from 2010 name her as a former employee of this designated terrorist organization. The New York Post also notes that Elkomy was an activist with the Muslim Brotherhood in the 1970s, based on a social media post by her daughter.
Private Praise for a Public Figure
Despite the campaign erasing her presence, El-Sayed speaks affectionately of Elkomy in private settings. His 2020 publication, “Healing Politics: A Doctor’s Journey into the Heart of Our Political Epidemic”, portrayed her with terms like “loving” and “devoted”. He wrote that she shares an “uncompromising… way of doing things.”
Elkomy remained closely involved in her son’s adult life even after they separated when he was three. She attended his 2014 graduation from Columbia Medical School. Photos from that day show the two sharing a beaming smile next to each other and El-Sayed’s half-sister.
The Watch List Question
El-Sayed told Mike Tobin that Jukaku’s name had been added to the Terrorist Screening Dataset. She never performed any act justifying her assignment there, he maintained. Asserting a “child” appeared on the identical registry, he further suggested the list contained errors.
The revelation about the watch list timing creates an awkward situation for the campaign. Breitbart notes that the Obama administration apparently put Jukaku on the list. On October 24 in Michigan, El-Sayed is anticipated to campaign with former President Barack Obama. El-Sayed told Daily Wire that the system makes folks “guilty until proven innocent because they’ve got different kinds of names.”
El-Sayed confirmed Jukaku was added to the list while Obama was in the White House. He said she sued to have her name removed. The 2016 lawsuit alleges Jukaku faced extra airport screening without knowing why. The filing stated she was believed to have been removed by 2016.
