The Breakthrough and the Backlash: What El-Sayed’s Victory Reveals About American Muslims...

[Bilal Mahmud المكافح المخلص]

On August 4, Michigan Democratic primary voters made Abdul El-Sayed the first Muslim nominated for the United

TUQA NUSAIRAT AND VOICES OF ISPU

States Senate by the Democratic Party. If elected in November, he would become the first Muslim to serve in the Senate. While Abdul El-Sayed’s victory in Michigan is a historic first, the more consequential story is not simply that a Muslim candidate won. It is that decades of American Muslim civic participation have now helped produce a major-party Senate nominee in one of the country’s most competitive swing states.

El-Sayed’s nomination sits at the intersection of two important trends the data bear out: American Muslims are becoming more visible, organized, and engaged in American political life, even as public endorsement of anti-Muslim stereotypes is rising.

American Muslim representation has expanded in the past decade when it comes to public office. In the House, new Muslim members like California’s Rep. Lateefah Simon join longtime representatives from the Midwest like Andre Carson, Ilhan Omar, and Rashida Tlaib. In 2025, Ghazala Hashmi became the first American Muslim woman elected lieutenant governor of Virginia, while Zohran Mamdani became the first Muslim mayor of a major U.S. city. And dozens of other Muslims are running for office, from congressional candidates in New Jersey to state and local offices in over a dozen states. Their elections, like El-Sayed’s nomination, are visible milestones in a much longer process of organizing, candidacy development, and civic engagement.

ISPU’s American Muslim Poll 2025 shows the extent of that engagement. The survey shows that voter registration among Muslims in the U.S. has steadily increased. Sixty percent of eligible American Muslim voters were registered to vote in 2016, and that number jumped to 85% in 2025. But Muslims are going beyond the ballot box when it comes to civic participation. Muslims were more civically engaged than most other groups in 2025, with 22% of Muslims indicating they contacted their federal elected representative compared to 17% in the general public. Muslim voters also attended town halls (23%), donated to political campaigns (19%), and volunteered for political campaigns (15%).

The same period also saw a measurable rise in anti-Muslim sentiment. Researchshows that spikes in anti-Muslim rhetoric happen around elections, where candidates, pundits, and the media scrutinize, vilify, and demonize Muslims. Muslim candidates receive an overwhelming share of this hate and bigotry, just as El-Sayed has over the past few months since his rise on the national scene. Whether it’s El-Sayed being accused of hostility to the US or Mamdani being called uncivilized for eating biryani with his fingers, these attacks closely resemble the stereotypes measured by the Islamophobia Index: that Muslims are violent, hostile to the country, misogynistic, or less civilized than other Americans.

Among the general population in the U.S., the Index jumped from 25 in 2022 to 33 in 2025. This is not surprising as we see leaders and politicians accuse El-Sayed of being a “terrorist” and “Jew hater,” and have campaign ads accusing him of misogyny.

Disagreement with El-Sayed’s positions on healthcare, immigration, US support for Israel, or any other policy is not inherently Islamophobic. The line is crossed when his faith, name, or family background is used as evidence of terrorism, foreignness, disloyalty, or collective blame. Muslim candidates are too often asked to prove that they are not extremists before they are permitted to discuss the economy, healthcare, education or the other issues that motivated them to run.

Dr. El-Sayed’s coalition and primary campaign platform extended well beyond any one religious or ethnic constituency, which helped him build support outside the Muslim community. As Dearborn’s mayor Abdullah Hammoud said, “People in Dearborn didn’t vote for Abdul because he’s Muslim. They voted for Abdul because he showed up,” pointing out El-Sayed’s door-knocking, community presence, and focus on the economic concerns facing working families.

As El-Sayed advances to the general election, the attacks against him have already intensified in scope and hatefulness. His family name, personal history, words, and actions are already being scrutinized through a distinctively anti-Muslim lens—one that has followed Muslim candidates even as they try to campaign on policy.

Firsts matter because they expand our sense of what is possible, and who gets to imagine themselves in positions of power. But a first becomes a turning point only when it makes the next breakthrough less exceptional. ISPU’s data show that American Muslims are increasingly registered, organized, and active in American civic life. But they also face rising anti-Muslim rhetoric, discrimination, and voting obstacles other communities report far less frequently. El-Sayed’s nomination captures both sides of that story — and only time will tell how this historic first will reverberate.

Full article:  https://tuqanusairat.substack.com/p/the-breakthrough-and-the-backla...

[Bilal Mahmud المكافح المخلص]

[Bilal Mahmud المكافح المخلص]

Kofi Bilal Mahmud Eid AlFitr 1443 A.H.

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