We already know about Abdul El-Sayed’s ties to the antisemitic streamer Hasan Piker, the man who said that “America deserved 9/11.” All El-Sayed had to say about that remark is that it was “dumb.” Not outrageous, intolerable, beyond the pale. Just “dumb.” He’s campaigned on two college campuses with Piker by his side, and Piker was with him at his victory celebration on primary night. We know that El-Sayed has repeatedly refused to say that the Jewish state has a right to exist, that he does not condemn the chant “From the river to the sea/Palestine will be free,” which is a call for the Jewish state’s destruction and the expulsion, or killing, of its Jewish inhabitants, and that he has accused Israel of “genocide” in Gaza.
Now more information has just been released about Imran Salha, the imam presiding at the Islamic Center of Detroit, one of the two mosques that El-Sayed regularly attends. More about the imam whose company El-Sayed keeps can be found here: “Imam Linked to Abdul El-Sayed Called Zionists ‘Cockroaches of History,’” by Alana Goodman, Washington Free Beacon, September 29, 2026:
An imam at a mosque attended by Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed described Zionists as the “cockroaches of history” and claimed the main religious duty of American Muslims is to fight them with “every single mode that is within your reach as a citizen of this country.”
Imran Salha, the imam at the Islamic Center of Detroit (ICD), said Muslims “have two roles here in America: To teach about Allah and frustrate the Zionists. Frustrate the Zionists with every single mode that is within your reach as a citizen of this country.”
“Every single time you go to a protest and you make the Zionists uncomfortable, you are rewarding Allah. They are the cockroaches of history, and we are the liberators,” Salha said in a 2024 sermon translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI).
He added that “Every single time you go on Fox News and you yell at that Zionist, Allah is rewarding you.”
News of Salha’s comments comes as El-Sayed has faced scrutiny for his attendance at the Muslim Community Association of Ann Arbor, where the imam gave a eulogy praising the late Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh as a “righteous man” and a “martyr,” the Washington Free Beacon first reported.
It also comes as Jewish Democratic voters have increasingly expressed concern about El-Sayed’s candidacy.
During a recent series of focus groups conducted by the Sentinel Action Fund, a conservative super PAC, several Michigan Jewish voters reportedly “expressed that this would be the first time they vote Republican,” referring to El-Sayed’s GOP opponent Mike Rogers.
“I never in my wildest dreams would have thought I’d consider [voting Republican], but it’s leaning towards that because I really don’t like [Abdul El-Sayed] at all,” one Michigan Jewish voter told the focus group, according to a memo shared with the Free Beacon.
El-Sayed often attends services at the Muslim Community Association of Ann Arbor and, while traveling the state, at the ICD, a source familiar with the situation told the Free Beacon. El-Sayed has also spoken at multiple events at the ICD—including in 2017 and 2018—and attended a political meeting at the mosque in 2019, according to reports.
Salha has a history of extremist remarks, according to social media posts and speeches reviewed by the Free Beacon.
In December 2023, he stated that “Zionism is terrorism” in a post on X. In another post, Salha denounced Israel and the United States for the targeted assassination of Hamas leaders in Qatar, calling the strike “Dishonorable, cowardly, and yet another example of the moral bankruptcy of both America & Israel. And yet another example that America is indistinguishable from Israel.”
As the imam at ICD, Salha has also hosted radical speakers at the mosque. In June, he held a fundraiser for Gaza that featured Imam Tom Facchine. In 2024, Facchine came under fire after he urged anti-Israel activists to “take out” a pro-Israel professor at Columbia University and “create a situation in which he’s in jeopardy,” arguing that if they were “able to take out somebody like that and make an example, that might shut up a hundred more.” Salha also spoke at a 2016 event alongside Hatem Bazian, a professor who has called for an “intifada” and advocated for the release of terrorist Marwan Barghouti.
Some of Salha’s radical comments have previously been reported. Three days after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks, Salha railed against Israel for lighting a “fire in our hearts” that will “burn that state until its demise.”
In a May 2023 sermon at ICD, he prayed to “eradicate” the “sick, disgusting Zionist regime,” according to a translation from MEMRI.
He also defended Hezbollah’s terrorist attacks against Israel in a social media post. “We can condemn Hezb[ollah] atrocities in Syria while also recognizing that they *are* making sacrifices for the sake of Palestine and frustrating the illegal zionist regime in unprecedented ways esp with recent hits,” wrote Salha in September 2024.
Imran Salha is the imam at the Detroit Islamic Center that Abdul El-Sayed prefers to all others. Salha describes Zionists as the “cockroaches of history,” denounces the Jewish state as the “illegal zionist regime,” and prays for Allah to “eradicate” this “sick, disgusting Zionist regime” (the state of Israel). He has insisted that “Zionism is terrorism.” Salha has hosted at his mosque Hatem Bazian, who has called for a new Intifada — that is, for the slaughter of Jews — as well as Tom Facchine, a Muslim convert who urged his audience to “take out,” that is, kill, a pro-Israel professor at Columbia University, so as to frighten other supporters of Israel into silence.
Shall we judge Abdul El-Sayed by the company he keeps, and especially by the imam, Imran Salha, whose mosque he regularly attends? We’d be fools not to.
WPM says
Jihadist have license in the 21 century to say anything they want ,then they either denied it ,say it was “out of contest” or say that it was a long time ago they” change their minds ” even it was only a year or two ago .It was said but someone or another is worse ,OR GO FULL “WHAT ABOUTISH” going off topic comparing what they think are worst events by other western groups .They bop ,weave ,word salad, strawman ,do many word gymnastics ,lying is as simple easy and national as breathing to the average non-Moslem to them. The MSM never take them to task ,because they are always forever the victim ,you are a bigot for pointing out the truth about what they say and do .The is the state of most MSM in the west .The left is harder on any group or person perceived as right of Stalin .
James Lincoln says
WPM,
All true.
And also true of nearly all of today’s Democrats in the United States.
somehistory says
A little OT
from the L.A. Times
“US can deport the leader of Wisconsin’s largest mosque on national security grounds, judge rules’
“The U.S. can deport the leader of Wisconsin’s largest mosque — an outspoken advocate of Palestinian rights — on the grounds that he is a threat to national security, an immigration judge ruled Wednesday.
Salah Sarsour was detained in Milwaukee in March by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers. A federal judge ordered Sarsour’s release in June, saying he raised a “substantial” claim that the Trump administration was targeting him for speaking out against Israel and advocating for Palestinian rights.”
ploome says
unfortunately, the damage has already been done.
this pos
grew up in the Israeli occupied West Bank, has been living in the U.S. for more than 30 years. He has six children and nine grandchildren, and also serves as a board member for the American Muslims for Palestine.
Sarsour was imprisoned in Israel in 1988 after confessing to throwing a Molotov cocktail and stones at Israeli military personnel. In 1995, he was convicted of attempting to hold weapons and ammunition. Sarsour denies committing those crimes. His attorneys say he was tortured and coerced into confessing in both instances.
(maybe he was raped by Israeli trained rape dogs)
Deportation to the West Bank, “means the end of my life,” Sarsour told The Associated Press in a Tuesday interview. One of his attorneys, Patrick Taurel, told the AP that Sarsour’s earlier treatment by Israeli authorities is “probably a good indicator of what awaits him” if he is deported.
( the kennel is being prepared)
we are now stuck with his “six children and nine grandchildren”
feh
ploome says
why are we allowing the creation of a fifth column in America
they all lie and conceal the real agenda of Islamic doctrine of hijrah or conquest via immigration
it is alive and well., and we allow it, fund it and enable it
the catastrophe will happen sooner rather than later
we are educating these monsters very well and they are learning very fast how to use our laws and freedoms to destroy our way of life.
Look at how far they have come since 9/11 the most successful attack and subsequent invasion of USA>