Abdul El-Sayed’s mother worked for charity U.S. branded a terror-financing network tied to bin Laden and Hamas

BS BULLETIN

Abdul El-Sayed’s birth mother reportedly worked from 1999 through at least 2004 for the Islamic American Relief Agency, which Treasury designated as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist entity in October 2004.
Treasury said IARA’s international network financially supported Osama bin Laden, al Qaeda, Hamas and other terrorist groups.

Michigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed is facing another uncomfortable round of scrutiny after newly resurfaced records showed that his birth mother once worked for a Missouri-based Islamic charity that the United States government later designated for supporting terrorists.

The underlying government record is considerably more serious than an ordinary campaign opposition-research hit.

According to reporting by The Midwesterner, subsequently picked up by the New York Post, Fatten Fathy Elkomy worked for the Islamic American Relief Agency, or IARA, from 1999 until at least 2004.

In October 2004, the Treasury Department designated the Islamic African Relief Agency — including its American alias, the Islamic American Relief Agency — and five senior officials as Specially Designated Global Terrorists under Executive Order 13224. OFAC’s own historical notice lists the Missouri operation and “all offices worldwide” under the designation.

And Treasury was anything but vague about why.

Its 2004 announcement said the organization’s international branches had supported Osama bin Laden, al Qaeda and the Taliban. Treasury said information available to the United States indicated IARA’s overseas branches sent hundreds of thousands of dollars to bin Laden in 1999.

Then-Treasury Secretary John Snow said the international offices had been providing financial support to “Usama bin Laden, al Qaida, Hamas and other terrorist groups.”

That is the federal government talking — not a campaign consultant, not an anonymous Twitter account and not some guy with a podcast and a ring light.

There is, however, an important fact that should not get bulldozed in the political frenzy surrounding the story: Elkomy herself was never accused of terrorism or charged with wrongdoing in connection with the organization. The New York Post likewise reported that she was not among those accused in the federal case.

Elkomy told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch in 2004 that her work involved helping orphans and children who had lost a parent, and she denied that the organization was connected to terrorism.

So the story is not that Abdul El-Sayed’s mother has been proven to be a terrorist operative. She has not. The story is that she worked for an organization whose global network was subsequently subjected to one of the federal government’s most serious terrorism-related financial designations — during the very period the government says that network was sending money connected to some of the world’s most notorious terrorist actors.

And IARA’s troubles did not end with that designation. Federal prosecutors later pursued the U.S. organization and its officials over illegal financial transfers to Iraq in violation of sanctions. IARA ultimately pleaded guilty to conspiring to transfer nearly $1.4 million to Iraq and agreed to dissolve.

The organization’s former executive director, Mubarak Hamed, was sentenced in 2017 to four years and ten months in federal prison after pleading guilty to conspiring to illegally transfer more than $1 million to Iraq. Prosecutors said he also pleaded guilty to obstructing laws governing tax-exempt charities by supplying false information to the IRS and lying to federal agents.

The Justice Department’s own historical summary also says IARA and several former officials had been accused of prohibited financial transactions benefiting Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, a U.S.-designated terrorist. All of which brings the story squarely into the 2026 Michigan Senate campaign.

El-Sayed is no longer merely one of several progressive Democrats fighting for a nomination. He won that nomination earlier this month and now faces Republican former Rep. Mike Rogers in November.

That makes every piece of his record — and inevitably every politically relevant revelation concerning those around him — national campaign material.

El-Sayed has already become one of the country’s most polarizing Democratic candidates. He has been closely associated with Sen. Bernie Sanders and the progressive wing of the party, and his positions on Israel and U.S. military assistance have been a major issue in the campaign.

That political context makes this particular revelation explosive, but it also makes accuracy especially important.

There is no evidence presented in the government records reviewed for this story that Abdul El-Sayed himself had any role in IARA. There is also no evidence that his mother was personally involved in terror financing.

But voters are also entitled to know what the organization was, what the federal government concluded about it, and why the connection is suddenly being discussed in one of America’s most important Senate races.

As of early Wednesday morning, the New York Post reported that El-Sayed’s campaign had been contacted for comment, but no response was included in its story. A search of subsequent public reporting did not turn up a newer campaign response before publication of this Daily BS report.

And that means El-Sayed probably has a question coming his way that has absolutely nothing to do with tackle football.

MY QUICK TAKE

Well.

The Michigan Senate race apparently needed another plot twist. Abdul El-Sayed has spent the past several days challenging Mike Rogers to play tackle football without pads.

My suggestion? Maybe put the helmet back on. Because the incoming questions are about to get considerably harder than a linebacker.

Now, fairness first: children do not inherit the sins, mistakes, affiliations or employment histories of their parents. Period. Abdul El-Sayed is responsible for Abdul El-Sayed. His mother was never charged with terrorism. That matters.

But come on.

When your résumé says, “Democratic nominee for United States Senate,” and somebody discovers that Mom worked for an organization that the United States Treasury later put on the Specially Designated Global Terrorist list, reporters are going to ask questions.

That isn’t Islamophobia. And Treasury didn’t designate these folks because somebody at the office forgot to recycle. We’re talking about a federal announcement citing bin Laden, al Qaeda, the Taliban and Hamas.

I’d say a Senate nominee whose mother actually worked for an organization subsequently designated by Treasury over terror financing is allowed at least one follow-up question.

Maybe two.

No pads required.

DBS WIRE SOURCES: