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Abdul El-Sayed, a Muslim Democratic Senate candidate in Michigan, insisted that Israel is “just as bad” as the terrorist organization Hamas on Sunday.
“You said the Israeli government is bad, do you think they are as bad as Hamas?” CNN’s Manu Raju asked El-Sayed on “Inside Politics.”
“Yes, killing tens of thousands of people makes you very bad,” El-Sayed replied. “It’s not how bad this one is compared to that one – Hamas: Bad, the Israeli government: Bad. We can say both.”
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Abdul El-Sayed attends the Detroit Association of Black Organizations (DABO) Christmas Party 2025 at the Bridge Center on December 16, 2025, in Detroit, Michigan. (Monica Morgan/Getty Images)
El-Sayed added that he “absolutely” considers Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a war criminal for Israel’s actions during its war with Hamas.
“If you kill people, you are a war criminal,” El-Sayed said.
Fox News Digital has reached out to El-Sayed’s campaign for comment.
El-Sayed, currently a Democratic primary candidate for Michigan’s open Senate seat in the 2026 midterms, has faced controversy in recent weeks as some of his past comments have resurfaced.
In July 2025, El-Sayed suggested at a town hall that political leaders must do a better job of “understanding” the motivation of terrorists.
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Abdul El-Sayed, who was previously elected to the Michigan Senate, suggested that efforts should be made to “understand” the motivations of terrorism. (Evan Cobb of The Washington Post via Getty Images)
“I also think we should be curious about why those things happen in the first place, like, [what] it drives a person to want to do such a terrible act,” said El-Sayed. “I have to be a student of people’s pain. Like, that’s what I did in medicine. That’s what I’m trying to do in politics. How, what happens when people are in pain?”
He also received backlash from campaigning with far-left Twitch streamer Hasan Piker, who has made his own provocative comments in recent years. Among them is Piker’s claim that Hamas was “a thousand times better than the fascist colonial apartheid state” of Israel.
He doubled down on the comparison during the episode “Pod Save America.”
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Abdul El Sayed, left, defends his association with Hasan Piker, right. (Evan Cobb for The Washington Post via Getty Images; Dia Dipasupil/FilmMagic)
“I have also said that I am a voter who reduces the risk,” said Piker. “I’m a bad voter, so, I’ll vote for Hamas over Israel every time because I look at the situation as a military organization with a political party and a political office and a political organization and a political organization and it’s not built entirely like an army from other countries but orphaned children who, you know, their parents were killed by the apartheid regime that has been 8 years old and the Palestinian people. It’s a massacre at this time.”
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El-Sayed defended his association with Piker.
