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El-Sayed’s half sister gave an Oct. 7 ‘blessing’ — and Michigan voters are going to hear about it

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BS BULLETIN

  • Abdul El-Sayed’s half sister Eman Abdelhadi delivered an “October 7th blessing” on the first anniversary of Hamas’ attack, opening with “Allahu Akbar” and never mentioning the roughly 1,200 people killed in the assault.
  • Abdelhadi now says the event was intended as a broader memorial for lives lost through Oct. 7, 2024.
  • El-Sayed’s campaign says he “loves his sister” but disagrees with some of her political positions and rhetoric.

Just when Abdul El-Sayed probably thought the controversies surrounding his political orbit couldn’t get any more combustible, along comes a resurfaced video from his half sister.

University of Chicago professor and activist Eman Abdelhadi delivered what organizers called an “October 7th blessing” on Oct. 7, 2024 — exactly one year after Hamas terrorists stormed into Israel, killing approximately 1,200 people and taking hostages.

Abdelhadi opened this way:

“I want to say, Allahu Akbar.”

She explained that the phrase means “God is greater” and said it had particular significance for her amid what she described as brutality and oppression. She continued:

“There is something greater than even the strongest armies, and, for me, that’s God.”

And later:

“I’ll see you on the streets.”

What she did not do in the video was mention the Israelis and others murdered by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023. That omission is now driving the controversy.

The video was posted jointly by Abdelhadi and Rabbis4Ceasefire, which described it at the time as an “October 7th blessing from Eman Abdelhadi, Scholar, Writer & Organizer.”

Abdelhadi appeared wearing a keffiyeh and framed Palestinians as victims of oppression while warning listeners against narratives imposed by “colonial powers.”

After the video resurfaced this week, she added context to the original post.

Abdelhadi said Rabbis4Ceasefire had organized and named the gathering and described it as “a moment of grief for lives lost between 10/7/23 and 10/7/2024.” She said her remarks were her “offering” to that memorial.

That’s important context. It also doesn’t answer the obvious question critics are asking:

If you’re delivering a blessing on the first anniversary of Oct. 7, why not acknowledge the people slaughtered on Oct. 7?

El-Sayed’s campaign responded carefully. A spokeswoman told Fox News:

“Abdul loves his sister and also disagrees with her on a number of political positions and the rhetoric she’s chosen to use, including on foreign policy.”

The campaign stressed that El-Sayed is the candidate, not Abdelhadi, and said his campaign is rooted in his love for America and Michigan. That’s a fair distinction.

Candidates should be judged primarily on their own words and actions, not every utterance made by a sibling, spouse, cousin or eccentric uncle at Thanksgiving dinner.

But El-Sayed has his own record on Israel, Hamas and some of the people surrounding his campaign. And that’s why the sister story isn’t happening in isolation.

On the second anniversary of the Hamas attack in October 2025, El-Sayed sent supporters a fundraising email focused heavily on Israel’s subsequent military campaign in Gaza. According to Jewish Insider, the email condemned Israeli actions but did not mention Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack that had triggered the war.

Michigan Democratic state Rep. Noah Arbit sharply criticized El-Sayed at the time, arguing the omission demonstrated disregard for Israeli and Jewish lives.

El-Sayed has elsewhere condemned Hamas and has described both Hamas and the Israeli government as evil. He has also repeatedly called for ending U.S. military aid to Israel, a position that became central to his successful Democratic Senate primary campaign.

So the question isn’t whether Abdul El-Sayed personally gave his sister’s speech. He didn’t. The question is whether voters see a broader pattern in the rhetoric surrounding him.

El-Sayed has also repeatedly faced questions about his willingness to campaign alongside left-wing streamer Hasan Piker.

Piker’s years-old declaration that “America deserved 9/11” has followed him into this Senate race, along with other inflammatory comments involving Israel and Jews.

El-Sayed has called the 9/11 remark “dumb” but rejected demands that he disavow Piker, describing that pressure as “gotcha politics.”

His argument has essentially been that appearing with someone does not mean endorsing everything that person has ever said.

Again, that’s not an absurd principle. Politicians regularly appear with supporters whose entire worldview they don’t share.

But eventually the surrounding company becomes politically relevant — especially when several controversies begin pointing in the same ideological direction.

Abdelhadi isn’t simply a professor whose name became public because her brother is running for office. She is an active political organizer.

Last October, she was arrested at an anti-ICE demonstration outside the Broadview processing facility in Illinois and charged with two felony counts of aggravated battery against a government employee along with misdemeanor obstruction charges. Prosecutors alleged that she spat at an Illinois State Police trooper; those charges remain allegations unless and until proven in court.

She has also made provocative statements about American holidays and colonialism that have drawn fresh attention as El-Sayed campaigns statewide.

None of that becomes Abdul El-Sayed’s record simply because they share family ties. But campaigns don’t occur in laboratories.

Voters inevitably ask what candidates believe, whom they surround themselves with and how they respond when people close to them make extreme or controversial statements.

Supporters of Republican nominee Mike Rogers wasted no time pushing the video into the Michigan Senate debate.

A group called Democrats for Mike Rogers responded that Jewish voters should reject what it called El-Sayed’s “extremism,” while other commentators described Abdelhadi’s remarks as a celebration of Oct. 7 — a characterization she disputes.

That’s especially significant in Michigan. The state’s last Senate contest was decided by just 19,006 votes, and estimates put Michigan’s adult Jewish population well above 100,000. Some Jewish Democrats have already publicly discussed crossing party lines against El-Sayed over Israel and antisemitism concerns.

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