DETROIT (Michigan News Source) — Months of research by the Middle East Forum (MEF) show Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed sought ballot signatures and campaigned at Michigan mosques where sermons called for revenge against Zionists, identified America as the enemy, and offered prayers that asked to “take the worst revenge upon” the Jewish people.

Taxpayer Dollars, Political Pulpits

The MEF, founded in 1994 and described on its website as an institution that “promotes American interests in the Middle East and protects Western values from Islamist threats through research, activism, and support for allies,” pointed out that El-Sayed campaigned inside Michigan mosques in 2026. The recorded mosque sermons show El-Sayed asking for ballot signatures at a Ramadan night prayer in Detroit, speaking at the Islamic House of Wisdom in Dearborn Heights and at the Islamic Organization of North America in Warren, and two Michigan preachers endorsing him from the pulpit in three sermons.

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The discovery raises a host of concerns as Election Day nears, including the mosques’ nonprofit status while collecting government funds. For instance, $43.7 million of the Detroit center’s money is school-meal reimbursement reported by the Michigan Department of Education to the federal government, according to MEF’s findings. In addition, $1 million in federal refugee assistance passed through the Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity in 2025 and 2026.

“These are not anonymous voices on the internet,” said Gregg Roman, executive director of the Middle East Forum. “They are Michigan pulpits, in their own words, and many of them take public money and host public officials,” Roman added. “The First Amendment protects a sermon. It does not entitle anyone to a state honor or a federal grant.”

In addition, Roman called for Michigan’s leaders to stop funding these mosques until a full review of what is preached there is conducted. “Every governor and every federal agency should ask the same question about the institutions they fund,” he said.

Praising terrorists and praying for killing

MEF states some of the key findings include El-Sayed asking for petition signatures at the Islamic Center of Detroit on March 13, 2026. Seventy minutes later, the closing prayer asks God to take “the worst revenge” on “the Zionists.”

At the Islamic Center of Detroit, a speaker told worshippers in January 2025 that they were “living here in America, in the house of Shaitan [Satan].”

At the Islamic House of Wisdom on May 22, 2026, “death to America” Imam Mohammad Ali Elahi praised El-Sayed and said, “I’m going to vote for this man.” Earlier in that sermon, he said Israel’s leaders “want to have domination over the Congress and White House.”

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Weeks later, Elahi once again pledged his vote to El-Sayed in the same sermon where he said Israelis claim “a right to genocide” and “it’s better to die with dignity than dying with humiliation and submission.”

It also appears to be a coordinated effort to send Muslims to the polls in record numbers, according to one of the sermons given before the Aug. 4 primary. On July 24, 2026, Sayed Saleh Qazwini at MECCA in Canton said, “Today in Michigan we have a chance at bringing the first Muslim anti-war senator that does not take money from foreign lobbies and this is Abdul El-Sayed who is running … in the primary. … This is why we have to all come out in numbers.”

Praise from Michigan’s Democrats

El-Sayed, who is running against Republican Mike Rogers, isn’t the only politician building ties with these mosques and their congregations. Last December, Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist II presented the Islamic Center of Detroit with a 25th-anniversary tribute on behalf of the State of Michigan. He is now running for secretary of state.

The Wayne County Commission placed a resolution honoring the same center on its December 2, 2025, agenda. Then-Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan attended its iftar in 2019. Dearborn Mayor Abdullah Hammoud attended or spoke at events at several Muslim institutions.

MEF calls for action

The MEF isn’t only concerned with El-Sayed’s actions. MEF is asking whether officials who honored these institutions knew about the sermons and how they will respond to its findings.

In the meantime, the MEF is calling on Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and the Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity to suspend further refugee-assistance subawards to the Islamic Center of Detroit pending review.

The group also wants the Michigan Department of Education to release meal counts and site reviews supporting $43.7 million in school-meal reimbursements, and the Michigan State Police to disclose how it vets nonprofit security-grant recipients.

MEF is asking Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist II and the Wayne County Commission whether they will withdraw their 2025 honors recognizing the center. It also seeks legislative hearings and a requirement that institutions’ public statements be reviewed before they receive state proclamations, tributes or grants.

Beyond Michigan

Michigan isn’t the only state seeing public funds mix with nonprofits that are drawing criticism. MEF is urging officials in all 50 states to examine recipients of taxpayer-funded meal, refugee and security programs.

Additionally, MEF is asking federal departments that oversee these programs to explain their vetting procedures and Congress to investigate funding to institutions that have called for jihad and the killing of Jews.