Michigan Democrat Abdul El-Sayed made history Tuesday night by winning a seat in the United States Senate.
Then he stepped in front of a cheering Detroit crowd, introduced himself by his full name — Abdulrahman Mohamed El-Sayed — and marked the moment with Arabic phrases.
El-Sayed told supporters that during the campaign he had said inshallah, or “God willing,” whenever the outcome came up. Now, he said, the phrase could become alhamdulillah, or “praise be to God.”
Watch the moment here:
The religious milestone will dominate the history books. El-Sayed is set to become the first Muslim ever elected to the U.S. Senate.
But the substance of the speech moved quickly from celebration to the kind of foreign-policy attack that helped define his campaign.
El-Sayed said Americans want their tax dollars spent on schools, health care and infrastructure at home. He followed that by declaring that they do not want their money used for “apartheid,” “genocide” or “war,” and said taxpayers should not be financing bombs dropped on other people’s children.
He did not name Israel in those lines. The target was unmistakable in context, however, and his words were widely understood as another attack on U.S. support for the Jewish state.
Another clip from the speech drew a blunt response:
The Associated Press reports that El-Sayed defeated Republican Mike Rogers in Michigan’s open-seat contest, delivering a major victory to the Democratic Party’s progressive wing in one of America’s most important battleground states.
Rogers, a former congressman and FBI agent, had President Trump’s endorsement. El-Sayed ran as an unapologetic progressive and emerged from a bitter Democratic primary before winning the general election.
The AP describes the result as a breakthrough for the party’s left flank and notes that El-Sayed’s rise could strengthen the national movement aligned with figures such as Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
El-Sayed, a physician and former Detroit health director, had first survived an expensive Democratic primary against Rep. Haley Stevens. His general-election win now turns that intraparty gamble into a six-year Senate term and a national platform for the progressive agenda he campaigned on.
Local 4 Detroit reported the AP projection shortly after 2:28 a.m. Eastern. At that point, the station’s results page showed El-Sayed at roughly 52% and Rogers at roughly 46%, with 71% of precincts reporting.
Those were still unofficial, incomplete totals, but the race call established El-Sayed as the winner. The seat was open because Democratic Sen. Gary Peters chose not to seek reelection.
The result gives Michigan a senator whose politics sit far to the left of the man he defeated — and whose first victory speech put his identity and his hostility toward U.S. support for Israel front and center.
The station’s election-night snapshot also listed minor-party candidates separately, making the two-party margin clear without pretending the early count was a certified final canvass. Later reporting showed the same basic result as more ballots were added: El-Sayed held the lead and the race remained safely in his column.
The Times of Israel documented the full turn in the speech. El-Sayed began with the history-making introduction and the Arabic phrases, then argued that American tax dollars should stay at home instead of supporting what he labeled apartheid, genocide and war.
The outlet also noted that El-Sayed had already alarmed Jewish voters with his rhetoric during the campaign, including his response to an attempted terrorist mass killing at a Michigan synagogue and preschool. He later apologized for that remark.
His choice of words in the victory address was deliberate. He translated inshallah for the crowd as “God willing,” then celebrated the result with alhamdulillah.
Moments later, he linked the domestic-spending argument to the most inflammatory accusations routinely leveled against Israel, ensuring that the foreign-policy fight followed him directly into his first speech as senator-elect.
El-Sayed posted his own victory message after the race was called:
The election is over. The consequences are just beginning.
Michigan voters have sent a hard-left progressive to the Senate, and El-Sayed used his first major address as senator-elect to show the country exactly what that means.
This is a Guest Post from our friends over at WLTReport. View the original article here.
The post WATCH: America’s First Muslim Senator-Elect Celebrates With Arabic Phrases — Then Takes Aim at Israel appeared first on 100PercentFedUp.com.
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