Abdul El-Sayed, the Michigan Democratic Senate candidate running in one of the most contested races of the 2026 cycle, received a standing ovation at the Islamic Society of North America's annual conference in Detroit over Labor Day weekend. Other speakers at the same event called for a fatwa against members of Congress and praised early Islamic conquests while describing the United States as a declining empire.
ISNA is a nonprofit Muslim religious organization founded in 1981. The conference took place in Detroit, situated in a metro area with a significant Arab American population concentrated in Dearborn and Hamtramck. Fox News Digital attended the event, covering panels on Saturday and Sunday around El-Sayed's speech.
At a session titled "Rising Islamophobia in the U.S.," a speaker described legislation that could bar colleges participating in certain commercial boycotts of Israel from receiving some federal higher-education funds as "an anti-Muslim bill." The legislation was introduced by Rep. Virginia Foxx of North Carolina and co-sponsored by Rep. Josh Gottheimer of New Jersey. Shortly after, a man in the audience wearing a Pakistani flag pin stood up and called for a fatwa against the bipartisan group of lawmakers who voted for it. Some audience members and one panelist applauded.
A fatwa is a religious ruling or opinion that can range from a formal condemnation to, in some cases, a justification of violence.
Panelists elsewhere in the conference accused Elon Musk of funding a white supremacist global anti-Muslim movement and suggested parts of the 9/11 narrative taught in American schools had been "debunked." One speaker referred to the War on Terror, a series of post-9/11 military operations that claimed the lives of over 7,000 U.S. military personnel, as the "War of Terror." An academic speaking on an Israel-Hamas panel said the U.S. is at "the very end of an ending empire" and said she was "very positive about it."
El-Sayed's own speech focused on unity and what he called the compatibility of Muslim and American identities, arguing that "being Muslim makes us better Americans." Before the event, his campaign told media outlets he is "not affiliated with and does not endorse any other participant of the conference." The statement followed reports that he would appear alongside clerics who had defended child marriage and praised U.S.-designated terrorist organizations including al Qaeda. Of those speakers, only the cleric who defended child marriage was ultimately disinvited, the Washington Free Beacon reported.
ISNA posted a disclaimer in the venue's main hallway stating it "does not endorse the actions of convention participants and explicitly disclaims any responsibility for the views expressed." Three Christian evangelists told Fox News Digital they were removed from the conference without warning while having conversations with attendees who had sought them out. ISNA declined to comment. El-Sayed's campaign did not respond to Fox News Digital after being reached on Wednesday.