Left-wing Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed headlined a series of luxury yacht fundraisers for an Islamic nonprofit organization linked to the Muslim Brotherhood, a Washington Free Beacon review found. One of the events—which took place on “one of New York Harbor’s most impressive private charter yachts”—featured a speaker who has urged Muslims to “stand with” Hamas and Hezbollah and stop “condemning antisemitism and condemning terrorism.”
El-Sayed headlined four Islamic Relief USA (IRUSA) “Cruise for a Cause” events in Washington, D.C., Miami, Chicago, and New York City between March 23 and April 6, 2019, promotional flyers posted to social media show. The New York City soirée took place aboard the Nautical Empress, a “tri-level yacht” that hosts “high-end corporate event[s]” and features “space for up to 600 guests, full-service bars, elegant dining areas, and an open-air rooftop deck.”
“Cruising past landmarks like the Statue of Liberty, the Brooklyn Bridge, and the Manhattan skyline, this tri-level yacht offers the perfect blend of luxury and iconic scenery,” the boat’s booking company boasts. “Make your next occasion a standout moment aboard one of New York Harbor’s most impressive private charter yachts.”
El-Sayed promoted the $100-a-head events on his Facebook page, writing that he was “proud to be joining Islamic Relief USA” for a “cruise” to “celebrate and help support their work.” He spoke at the New York City and Washington, D.C., cruises alongside the Dearborn-based activist Amer Zahr, who expressed solidarity with Hamas and Hezbollah during a 2017 rally, telling residents of Dearborn, Mich., “whether it’s called Hamas, whether it’s called Hezbollah, we stand with everybody who stands against the Israeli occupation.” Four years later, in a social media video, Zahr took aim at “all the activists and leaders out there that are condemning antisemitism and condemning terrorism right now,” saying, “Stop it! Stop! You are not helping.”
Former IRUSA East Coast operations manager Yousef Abdallah also promoted the New York City fundraiser on Facebook, writing, “Come enjoy a good company on a heated boat.” In a since-deleted 2014 Facebook post, Abdallah said then-New Jersey governor Chris Christie (R.) “kneels down on his knees before the jewish lords and says ‘I am sorry.’ Only money makes stuff like this happen. … Muslims should remember this very well.”
El-Sayed’s participation in the cruises raises fresh questions about his ties to extremists as he faces off against Democratic congresswoman Haley Stevens in Michigan’s August 4 primary.
The Israeli government sanctioned IRUSA’s parent organization, Islamic Relief Worldwide, in 2014 over alleged support for Hamas. In 2024, the House Ways & Means Committee opened an investigation into both organizations’ finances, noting that IRUSA supplies nearly one-third of Islamic Relief Worldwide’s annual revenues, which it allegedly funnels to Hamas. In 2018, the House Oversight Committee dubbed IRUSA a “prime example” of the influence that the Muslim Brotherhood, a fundamentalist Islamist sect that formed Hamas in Gaza in 1988, has in the United States.
Though IRUSA has denied funding terrorist groups, its leaders’ antisemitic rhetoric has fueled concerns about its extremism.
In addition to Abdallah, IRUSA CEO Ahmed Shehata—who contributed $500 to El-Sayed’s Senate campaign on March 10—has faced criticism for his participation in what the George Washington University Program on Extremism described as “Brotherhood-aligned activism.” Shehata was photographed at a pro-Brotherhood event in Seattle speaking in front of a banner with the group’s trademark “Rabia” symbol, which depicts a hand holding up four fingers, according to the Program on Extremism.
IRUSA director Esam Omeish, meanwhile, has donated $4,350 to El-Sayed’s Senate campaign. A former president of the Muslim American Society—which the House Oversight Committee describes as an “overt arm in the U.S. of the global Muslim Brotherhood”—Omeish urged Muslims in the early-2000s to embrace “the jihad way.”
El-Sayed is no stranger to Brotherhood-tied groups. His father-in-law, Tayeb Jukaku, is a founding member of the Islamic Society of North America, an Islamist group created by the Muslim Brotherhood and linked to Hamas financing, the Free Beacon reported. Jukaku has donated $300,000 to the largest PAC backing El-Sayed’s Senate campaign.
El-Sayed also defended the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood in a 2011 essay during the Arab Spring, touting its willingness to “compromise” with sectarian leaders after the overthrow of former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak. He dismissed concerns that the Brotherhood would mimic Hamas’s control of Gaza. The Trump administration designated the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization earlier this year for coordinating “possible terrorist activities” with Hamas.
El-Sayed, whom supporters praise for his masterful public speaking skills, has used those talents to raise money for other radical causes. He headlined a fundraiser in October 2019 with Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D., Mich.) for the Detroit chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America, where he posed in front of a pamphlet of a DSA fist choking a snake labeled “CAPITALISM,” the Free Beacon reported. The event raised $10,000 for the socialist group.
It’s unclear how much money the El-Sayed luxury cruise events raised for IRUSA. Neither the organization nor El-Sayed’s campaign responded to requests for comment.
The events highlight El-Sayed’s close relationship with Zahr, the activist who said he stands with Hezbollah and Hamas. Zahr is a “very good friend” of El-Sayed and one of “the top surrogates for him in Dearborn,” according to former El-Sayed campaign aide Jordan Domingue.
Zahr also campaigned for El-Sayed in his 2018 gubernatorial run, and the duo served as surrogates for Bernie Sanders’s 2020 presidential campaign. They appeared on stage together at a May 2021 protest in Dearborn against President Joe Biden and were featured speakers at ArabCon in Dearborn last September, where Zahr mockingly asked professor Rabab Abdulhadi during a panel discussion whether she condemned Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel. “I will never condemn Palestinian resistance,” Abdulhadi told Zahr, who replied, “That’s right.”
Zahr also posted a photo last year in front of a memorial to slain Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, referring to him as a “hero.”
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