As the nation approaches the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, several rising stars within the Democratic Party are being forced to answer for past statements and associations critics say minimize or excuse the deadliest terrorist attack on American soil.
Nowhere is that tension more visible than in Michigan, where the party’s U.S. Senate nominee has spent much of the summer fielding questions about his own remarks and his ties to a controversial online commentator.
Connect with others in your state in prayer.
From Just the News:
The Democrats’ Senate nominee in Michigan, Abdul El-Sayed, has generated the most recent controversy.
He has spent months fielding questions about his relationship with left-wing Twitch streamer Hasan Piker, who previously told his audience that the United States “deserved” the 9/11 attack. During the primary, El-Sayed repeatedly campaigned alongside Piker and, at first, declined to condemn his remarks. In August, El-Sayed dismissed Piker’s comment as “a dumb statement.”
Most recently, El-Sayed apologized to Michigan’s Jewish Democrats for controversial comments he made earlier this year following a March attack against a synagogue in the Detroit area. In that attack on Temple Israel, in West Bloomfield Township, a gunman rammed the synagogue with his vehicle and opened fire. The suspect, who was originally from Lebanon, was motivated to carry out the attack after some of his relatives were killed in an Israeli airstrike during the country’s war against the terrorist group Hezbollah.
El-Sayed later apologized to the Michigan Democratic Jewish Caucus, saying, “I made a mistake. I should have issued a statement, of course, condemning it, and it just should have been the full stop.” He added that if his statement caused pain, he was sorry. Old posts have continued to surface, including one from April 2020 in which he compared 9/11 deaths to the COVID-19 death toll and suggested the country wage a “war for public health” the way it launched the War on Terror.
The pattern is not new to this election cycle. In 2019, Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., ignited controversy when she told an audience at the Council on American-Islamic Relations that the group was founded “because they recognized that some people did something” on 9/11. Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., defended Omar at the time, calling the backlash a “pure racist act.”
The scrutiny has extended well beyond Congress this year. Former Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner, a Marine veteran who challenged Sen. Susan Collins before dropping out of the race, faced renewed criticism after a 2002 high school op-ed resurfaced in which he wrote that “one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter.” In New York City, Mayor Zohran Mamdani has faced pressure from 9/11 victims’ families over his endorsement of state Senate candidate Aber Kawas, who once called it “reprehensible” to require an apology for “a terror attack that a couple of people did.” Mamdani has said he will attend this year’s commemoration, pledging to “never forget” the victims and first responders.
As the anniversary nears, some Michigan Democrats, including Rep. Hillary Scholten, have declined to endorse or campaign alongside El-Sayed over his associations and statements.
As the nation marks 25 years since nearly 3,000 lives were lost, believers are reminded that words carry weight, especially when spoken about grief and sacrifice. Scripture calls God’s people to speak the truth in love and to honor those who have suffered (Ephesians 4:15). Whatever one’s politics, the memory of that day deserves clarity and compassion, not political calculation.
As the nation approaches the 25th anniversary of 9/11, let us pray for the families who still carry the weight of that day, for those who disrespect the tragic memory to face accountability, and that truth, justice, and integrity will sweep across America’s political elections.
How are you praying about this issue? Share your prayers and Scriptures in the comments below.
(Excerpt from Just the News. Photo Credit: Conlan Houston – https://www.flickr.com/photos/197161005@N08/54882672115/, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=177428644).
