A Wave Of Islamophobia Dominates End Of Midterm Elections
"This is the worst that I've ever seen as far as political rhetoric"
When a member of the audience at an event for Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic U.S. Senate nominee in Michigan, asked El-Sayed to denounce the Muslim Brotherhood, the candidate was prepared.
After definitively disavowing the organization, an Islamist group from Egypt with ties to terrorist organizations, El-Sayed asked the man, who reluctantly identified himself as “Tommy,” why he was asking such a question –– and then proceeded to give a minutes-long answer complete with a history lesson.
It was not a new or surprising turn of events. As races tighten and even perennial red states like Texas and Kansas come into play, the Republican Party has upped the ante on spewing hateful rhetoric about Muslims. That town hall question implied that because El-Sayed is Muslim, he supports terrorism. It’s a common trope in Islamophobia. As anti-Muslim attacks rise, Muslim Democrats say they don’t just have to defend their policies, but also their identities.
“Unfortunately, we have people with the bully pulpit, the greatest of those being the president of the United States of America who has been fomenting Islamophobia during the election cycle,” Dawud Walid, the executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations Michigan told The Caucus.
“I’ve served as executive director of CAIR Michigan since 2005,” Walid said. “This is the worst that I’ve ever seen as far as political rhetoric.”
The attacks on El-Sayed began immediately after he won the Democratic primary in August, with high-profile Republicans attempting to connect him with terrorism and the 9/11 attacks, despite the fact that El-Sayed was born in the U.S.
Trump has insisted that El-Sayed’s first name is actually Mohammed and claims that having one of the most common names in the world makes him a “jihadist.” His Republican opponent, Mike Rogers, has repeatedly said that El-Sayed has received funding from groups aligned with terrorists.
Despite the frenzy to paint Muslim politicians as a threat to the country, there are only five Muslims serving in the U.S. Congress. They’re all in the House and they’re all Democrats. If El Sayed wins, he will become the first Muslim to serve in the Senate.
“Despite there being more Muslim elected officials and perhaps a greater social imprint of Muslims in American society, the amount of anti-Muslim animus has actually increased,” Walid said.
A September 2026 Pew Research survey found that 51% of respondents believe that Islam encourages violence. In March 2002, just six months after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, only 25% of Americans said the same. Unsurprisingly, views on Islam and Muslims in public life are extremely partisan, according to the polling.
But perhaps nothing is more politically volatile than the Trump administration’s investigation into Rep. Ilhan Omar (MN-05), who came to the U.S. from Somalia as a refugee and was one of first two Muslim women elected to Congress. In the House, She has fiercely criticized Trump’s policies.
Trump’s years-long disdain for her came to a head earlier this month when FBI agents raided Omar’s home in Washington, citing an ongoing criminal investigation into the congresswoman’s immigration paperwork. So far, her phone has been reportedly seized and members of her family have been subpoenaed.
“For 10 years, Trump has targeted me with baseless lies and smear campaigns,” Omar said on X. “This is just the latest escalation in his campaign of political intimidation.”
Prominent civil rights groups agreed with Omar’s characterization of the investigation.
“We call on all political leaders to condemn this targeting of Rep. Omar, as well as the broader systematic targeting of Somali Americans in Minnesota, and to demand that the Justice Department uphold the rule of law,” CAIR National said in a statement.
Many Democratic elected officials have spoken out. "Our Muslim families don't deserve to be used in this political campaign. Talk about your agenda. Talk about what you want to do for Michiganders. Stop, you know, using awful terrorism attacks on our nation and horrible moments in our country, and apply it on to a whole faith," Rep. Rashida Tlaib (MI-12), who is also Muslim, told the Detroit News.
Even former president Barack Obama weighed in on the raid, saying Trump is singling her out “as someone who he believes does not belong in this country.” Notably absent from the wave of pushback was Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) the Senate minority leader who has previously clashed with Omar on policy positions.
But Democratic candidates know that aside from xenophobia, there’s another reason why anti-Muslim rhetoric is taking center stage at the tail end of the election cycle.
“They think they can point to my name and say a bunch of scary words,” El-Sayed told reporters earlier this month, “and that people are going to forget that they pay way too much for gas and groceries.”
