LANSING, Mich. (Michigan News Source) — The Muslim Brotherhood has become a flashpoint in Michigan’s U.S. Senate race, as Democrat Abdul El-Sayed denies ties to the group and faces scrutiny over relatives’ reported past involvement.

The Muslim Brotherhood is an Islamist religious and political movement founded in Egypt in 1928 that seeks to shape government and society around Islamic law and principles. It has inspired organizations throughout the Middle East and beyond.

Faith and politics collide

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U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. sat down in his personal capacity with conservative talk show host Steve Gruber to discuss his views on the Brotherhood and Sharia law.

“The Muslim Brotherhood’s toxic ideology is called Islamism, not Islam,” Kennedy said. “[That] is a marriage of religion and politics.”

Kennedy tied those concerns to El-Sayed’s candidacy, questioning whether the Brotherhood’s ideology is compatible with the progressive values El-Sayed promotes.

“Sharia law, you know, kills gays,” Kennedy told Gruber. “It subjugates women. It turns women into property.” Kennedy added, “All the liberal values that the left supposedly believes in are exactly the opposite of what the Muslim Brotherhood believes,” he said.

What the U.S. has designated

The United States imposed terrorism designations on three Brotherhood branches in January. The Lebanese branch was designated a Foreign Terrorist Organization, while the Egyptian and Jordanian branches were designated Specially Designated Global Terrorists.

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Kennedy argued that El-Sayed needs to go beyond denouncing the Brotherhood and explicitly reject Sharia as a basis for American government.

After continued questioning, El-Sayed recently said personal religious observance and public policy are separate. In an August interview with Fox News host Jesse Watters, he said, “Nobody is trying to push Sharia law on anyone else.”

His campaign has also said he supports the separation of church and state and opposes efforts by any religious community to write its religious laws into American law.

With Election Day approaching, Kennedy is pressing El-Sayed for a more explicit rejection. El-Sayed maintains that his faith guides his personal life without dictating the laws he would support for everyone else.