BUZZ
Professor says their mom was activist ‘in the Muslim Brotherhood during the early 70s’
A University of Chicago professor, the half-sister of U.S. Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed, has said that their family has connections to the terrorist-linked Muslim Brotherhood, according to the Washington Free Beacon.
El-Sayed, the Democratic nominee in Michigan, denied any such ties Sunday on Meet the Press.
But his half-sister, University of Chicago Professor Eman Abdelhadi has posted comments to the contrary online, the Beacon found.
The U.S. Department of State designated the Muslim Brotherhood’s Egyptian and Jordanian branches as “Global Terrorists” earlier this year, because they financially and “enthusiastically” support Hamas.
In its report Monday, the Beacon uncovered several posts that Abdelhadi wrote suggesting the family has links to the terrorist group in Egypt:
Eman Abdelhadi, an assistant professor at the University of Chicago, wrote openly about her family’s ties to the Muslim Brotherhood in social media posts in 2012 and 2013, a Free Beacon review found. In 2012, days after Egypt elected Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohamed Morsi as president, she wrote, “My family has long been MB.” A year later, she said, “I don’t support the #MB, but I have had family jailed for being a part of it,” and, “Praying for all my family that supports the #MB in Egypt. Lie low, stay safe.”
Abdelhadi … also indicated in her posts that she remained in close contact with her Brotherhood relatives, writing in 2012, “Asked my Aunt about the MB when she was visiting the US, was surprised by respect for civil liberties, women, religious minorities.” “Conversations with my #MB family in Egypt revealed respect for individual liberties & secular state,” she added one year later. El-Sayed and Abdelhadi share the same mother, Fatten Elkomy, who emigrated from Egypt in the late 1970s and married El-Sayed’s father. After they divorced, Elkomy married Abdelhadi’s late father, who was Palestinian. Elkomy at one point worked for the Islamic American Relief Agency, which was sanctioned for funding al Qaeda.
In another post, dated June 24, 2012, she wrote: “Had an amazing talk with my mom about her activism in the Muslim Brotherhood during the early 70s while she was in college #respect”
Abdelhadi and her brother are known for their progressive political views and have been active in pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel protests.
What’s more, Abdelhadi is facing assault charges after allegedly spitting on police officers at an anti-ICE protest in Chicago last year.
She is pleading not guilty to two felony aggravated battery charges, The College Fix reported last month. Her next court appearance is scheduled for Wednesday.
Illinois State Police reports from the Oct. 3, 2025 protest, obtained by The Fix, allege that Abdelhadi was arrested after “spitting multiple times at multiple” officers and then resisting arrest.
A few days after her arrest, Abdelhadi wrote about the protest on BlueSky. She suggested that law enforcement officers were to blame, writing on Oct. 6 that “ICE rushed at unarmed protesters standing on a patch of grass.”
She also reposted a video of herself yelling “Shame!” at police while wearing a “Free Palestine” T-shirt.
Abdelhadi describes herself as a “queer Muslim activist” and has said she wants to abolish the police, according to the Washington Free Beacon. She is a professor in the University of Chicago’s Department of Comparative Human Development.
MORE: Abdul El-Sayed’s half sister, a U. Chicago professor, pleads not guilty to spitting on cops
