El-Sayed's Campaign Confirms He Still Follows Sharia Law in Personal Life

Abdulrahman El-Sayed, the Michigan Democrat Senate nominee, has confirmed that he continues to adhere to Sharia law in his personal life, despite past controversies surrounding his adherence to Islamic religious principles. This confirmation comes after previously unreported comments from 2009 surfaced, in which El-Sayed described following Sharia law as a lifelong "obligation." The remarks were initially made during an interview with The New York Times when El-Sayed was a 24-year-old medical student and Rhodes scholar. At the time, he had secured a "Sharia-compliant" mortgage to purchase a $123,000 condominium in Ann Arbor, avoiding interest, which Islamic law prohibits. The Washington Free Beacon first reported on the resurfacing of the interview. El-Sayed told the New York Times in 2009, “Ultimately, the question is, when I die and I stand before God and go through everything I did in my life, I don’t want to say I did it the easy way instead of the Shariah-compliant way. Not because of fear but because of obligation.” His campaign spokesperson, Roxie Richner, confirmed to the Free Beacon that El-Sayed continues to live by the rules of his faith, though he emphasizes the importance of separating religion from state affairs. “Abdul believes in the separation of church and state,” she said. “While he personally lives by the rules of his faith, as many Americans of various faiths do, Abdul opposes any effort by any religious community to write their faith laws into the laws of our country.” Sharia law, derived from Islamic religious teachings, includes prohibitions on paying or earning interest, prescribes severe punishments such as death for leaving Islam, imposes strict restrictions on women, and historically allowed child marriage. These aspects have been central to debates around the influence of religious law in public policy. El-Sayed has consistently opposed legislative attempts to ban or restrict the application of Sharia law in legal contexts. During his unsuccessful 2018 campaign for Michigan governor, El-Sayed denied having ever referred to himself as "Sharia-compliant," according to an interview with journalist Laura Loomer. He abruptly ended the discussion and later instructed his staff to avoid including certain items in a documentary titled How To Fix A Primary. In the film, El-Sayed directed filmmakers to exclude a bookshelf containing the Quran and a volume by Sheikh Mohammed al-Ghazali, a prominent figure associated with the Muslim Brotherhood. Al-Ghazali once stated that refusing to implement Sharia could constitute apostasy and labeled an Egyptian professor who advocated for church-state separation as an infidel. El-Sayed further criticized efforts to ban Sharia in a 2022 speech, comparing Oklahoma’s 2010 ballot measure banning the practice to historical injustices such as the Trail of Tears, the Tulsa race massacre, and the Oklahoma City bombing. He argued that such measures reflect ongoing issues rooted in white supremacy and systemic racism. “I don’t have to tell you that the same exact forces that drove native peoples from their land two centuries ago, destroyed Black Wall Street a century ago, bombed a building decades ago, and tried to ban Sharia law not a decade ago, that those forces are alive and well today,” he said during the speech. Personal aspects of El-Sayed’s adherence to Sharia law have been documented in earlier reports. A 2006 feature in the Michigan Daily described him as a “particularly devout” Muslim. He proposed to Sarah Jukaku, who wears a hijab, while both were still in college due to Islamic teachings prohibiting premarital relations. They followed a traditional two-step Islamic marriage process, living separately for the first year to maintain chastity. Jukaku, however, does not frequently attend campaign events and was absent from the primary watch party. The couple has two young daughters, though El-Sayed has not publicly commented on whether he expects them to follow the same rules regarding courtship, marriage, and modesty. Financial disclosures indicate that El-Sayed and his wife hold between $150,000 and $425,000 in Amana Mutual Funds, which screen out companies earning more than 5 percent in interest. This aligns with Islamic financial principles that prohibit riba, or usury. As El-Sayed prepares for the general election against Republican Mike Rogers, his adherence to Sharia law in private life remains a focal point of scrutiny, even as he campaigns on a platform emphasizing the separation of church and state.