A Michigan imam with a history of antisemitic rhetoric is framing the state's Democratic Senate primary as a holy obligation, and the candidate he backs has never publicly distanced himself from the cleric's incendiary language.
Hassan Qazwini, head of the Islamic Institute of America, used back-to-back Friday sermons on July 24 and July 31 to rally worshippers behind Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic Senate candidate challenging Haley Stevens in Michigan's primary. Qazwini cast the race as a showdown between a "clean" candidate and a "Zionist candidate," told congregants that voting was a "moral responsibility" and a "religious duty," and urged them to use the ballot as a "huge and powerful weapon" against pro-Israel influence. The Washington Free Beacon reported on the sermons August 3, days before the primary.
Neither El-Sayed's campaign nor the Islamic Institute of America responded to requests for comment.
In his July 24 sermon, Qazwini labeled Stevens a "puppet" of Israel and warned congregants about what he called a coordinated scheme by pro-Israel groups. He told worshippers:
"Beware of the plot being schemed by the pro-Israeli lobby for you. They don't care about you, Michiganders. All they care about [is] their own interest."
That same sermon leaned on tropes about Jewish money and dual loyalty. Qazwini said Israel and its supporters view the United States as nothing more than a source of funding.
"Israel cares about its own interest and the money, the cash the U.S. pays it, because Israel and the pro-Israeli lobby, all they see in America... is a cash cow."
A week later, on July 31, Qazwini escalated. He framed the primary ballot itself as a weapon against pro-Israel politics:
"The way to deal the Zionist a bigger blow is to go and cast your vote on Tuesday, and don't allow the Zionist candidate to win."
He drew a stark moral line between the two candidates, telling worshippers they had to choose between "clean people, who are running to serve your community, your state, and people who are there to serve the interest of Israel."
El-Sayed's ties to Qazwini are not arm's-length. On June 6, the candidate headlined the grand opening of the Islamic Institute of America's new 67,000-square-foot facility, which features five golden domes. He offered "hearty congratulations" to Qazwini and praised the "incredible masjid." Qazwini, in turn, formally endorsed El-Sayed's Senate bid.
El-Sayed has never publicly criticized Qazwini. That silence fits a broader pattern. On a campaign strategy call in March, a recording of which was obtained by the Free Beacon, El-Sayed explained why he would not comment on the death of Iran's Ayatollah Ali Khamenei:
"I also want to remind you guys that there are a lot of people in Dearborn who are sad today. So, like, I just don't want to comment on Khamenei at all."
Dearborn, Michigan, a heavily Muslim and Arab community, is El-Sayed's strongest base of political support. His reluctance to criticize a foreign authoritarian, paired with his willingness to appear alongside Qazwini, suggests a candidate who has made a deliberate calculation about which voters he cannot afford to offend.
El-Sayed has also accused Israel of "genocide" and has headlined events for the Democratic Socialists of America while later telling voters he is no socialist, a recurring gap between his activist record and his general-election positioning.
Qazwini's rhetoric is not new. In 2020, he claimed Israel funds ISIS and said the terrorist group was "playing the role of the arm of the Zionist in the Muslim world." That statement drew a rare public rebuke from the presidential campaign of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.), which denounced Qazwini's "antisemitic conspiracy theories" and "toxic" comments. Sanders, an independent who caucuses with Democrats, is one of the most progressive members of the Senate, and even his campaign found Qazwini's language beyond the pale.
At another point, Qazwini described Sanders as honorable "even though he is a Jew", a backhanded qualifier that underscored the nature of his worldview.
In 2024, Qazwini labeled lawmakers who supported the Antisemitism Awareness Act, a bipartisan bill, "stooges of Israel" and said they should be "indicted and convicted of treason." In a March 24 sermon, he prayed for Allah to "grant victory to our brothers in Iran" and "inflict defeat upon Your Zionist enemies." On June 26, he said Iran had "stood firm" and "humiliated the most powerful man on earth."
Qazwini has also publicly praised Hezbollah, the Iran-backed group designated as a terrorist organization by the U.S. government. After Israel's military killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, Qazwini praised him as a hero of the "resistance" and said Nasrallah's death would become "fuel to sustain the resistance against Israel."
Qazwini's family ties to Iran's ruling establishment run deep. His father was appointed to Iran's judiciary by the country's first supreme leader, Ayatollah Khomeini.
Qazwini is not the only controversial figure in El-Sayed's orbit. The candidate has campaigned with Hasan Piker, an influencer who once said "America deserved 9/11." He has also appeared alongside Adam Hamawy, a New Jersey House candidate who testified on behalf of Omar Abdel-Rahman, known as the "Blind Sheikh", the mastermind of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.
A candidate is known, in part, by the company he keeps. El-Sayed's willingness to share stages and accept endorsements from figures with records like these is a choice, one that voters in Michigan's Democratic primary will have to weigh.
El-Sayed's financial disclosures have revealed a Dubai rental property and debt to a luxury Emirati developer, adding questions about his personal financial entanglements to the political ones.
And his public positioning has drawn scrutiny on other fronts. El-Sayed once called the Trump tax cut "deplorable", then pocketed $26,000 from it, a contradiction that fits a broader pattern of saying one thing for the cameras and doing another when no one is watching.
He has also headlined luxury yacht fundraisers for an Islamic charity flagged by Congress over ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, another association that raises questions about judgment and transparency.
El-Sayed's opponent, Haley Stevens, has been described as a pro-Israel moderate. Qazwini's sermons make clear that, in his view, that alone disqualifies her. He did not attack Stevens on policy specifics or her legislative record. He attacked her for being insufficiently hostile to Israel, and told worshippers that opposing her was a religious obligation.
El-Sayed has not repudiated any of it. He has not returned the endorsement. He has not said a word about Qazwini's language. When even Bernie Sanders's campaign, hardly a bastion of hawkish pro-Israel sentiment, found Qazwini's rhetoric too toxic to tolerate, El-Sayed's continued silence is not neutrality. It is a position.
Michigan voters deserve to know whether the man who wants their Senate seat shares Qazwini's views, or simply finds them too useful to reject.
