Abdul El-Sayed, the Democrat running for U.S. Senate from Michigan, gave a masterclass on how to respond to religious bigotry Saturday, when GOP operative Thomas “Tommy” Teepell — who has deep ties to Christian nationalism — attempted a gotcha by asking the U.S.-born Muslim candidate if he would “disavow” the Muslim Brotherhood, a nearly 100 year old decentralized movement that began in Egypt. El-Sayed’s measured response — which included him responding “yes, absolutely” to the question of whether he would disavow the group — was most important because it illustrated that the best rebuttal to Christian nationalists is the Constitution.
Let’s break down El-Sayed’s response. After giving Teepell the disavowal he seems not to have expected, the candidate pushed back: “But here’s the thing about it. You’re asking the question because implicitly, you assume that I’ll have dual loyalties, right? You assume that I wouldn’t disavow, or that I’ll have some higher order allegiance than to the Constitution, correct? Tommy, is that what you imply?”
You assume that I’ll have some higher order allegiance than to the Constitution, correct? Tommy, is that what you imply?”
U.S. Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed to a GOP operative
When Teepell — a former adviser for Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., and the son of a former Republican governor’s chief of staff — continued questioning El-Sayed, the candidate eloquently appealed to the values of religious freedom established at the founding of the United States: “I’m going to swear an oath to the Constitution of the United States. And that Constitution guarantees us all the right to practice whatever faith we want or no faith at all.”
Indeed, the framers were deliberate about creating a nation where everyone can practice their faith freely without government interference. The drafters of the original Constitution only mentioned religion once in Article VI, and that mention was to bar religious tests for office. The First Amendment bars any official state religion.
Yet, throughout American history, people embracing religious bigotry have cast doubt on candidates who weren’t Protestant Christians. In his exchange with Teepell, El-Sayed reminded the country of that. In one of the most stirring defenses of religious freedom I’ve ever seen from a candidate, El-Sayed referred to 1960 presidential candidate John F. Kennedy:
When he ran for president, he was asked whether or not he was going to have allegiance to the Pope at the Vatican, because of course, he’s Catholic. And his answer, famously, was that he was not running to be a Catholic president. He was running to be president that happened to be Catholic. I’m not running to be a Muslim senator. I’m running for U.S. Senate and happen to be Muslim. And so, you know, it’s important, I think, that because you would ask this question in a way that suggests that somehow our Constitution shouldn’t be the thing that all of us bear allegiance to. And I’m just telling you, that for me, that Constitution is the guiding light. It guarantees me the right to pray as I choose to pray or not pray at all. It guarantees you the right to pray as you choose to pray, or not pray at all.
The viral video ends with El-Sayed turning the tables and asking Teepell, “Do you disavow any attempt to read any religious doctrine into the laws of our country?” And that’s where it gets sad. Teepell responded, “I do not.”
There we see clear evidence that Christian nationalism is the most dangerous threat to religious freedom in our country today. El-Sayed dropped the mic, saying, “I think it’s you who needs to understand the Constitution, not me.”
El-Sayed is not the only candidate who’s having his faith wrongly brought up on the campaign trail. In Kansas and Texas, the Democrats’ U.S. Senate nominees Adam Hamilton and James Talarico are finding their faith mercilessly pilloried by their Republican candidates — even though Hamilton is the pastor of the largest church in the state and Talarico is a seminarian. In their races, they’re not being accused of belonging to the wrong religion, just not practicing it in a way that their Republican critics think they should.
As a nonprofit leader, I’m not endorsing El-Sayed (or any candidate for office). But I am endorsing everyone reaffirming their belief in theConstitution and its unambiguous position on religious freedom. That’s something each and every one of us can do.
That’s why today, Interfaith Alliance is launching a new public sign-on statement: Stop All Attacks on Candidates’ Personal Faiths. It’s depressing to have to put out such a call-to-action. Conservatives have long warned about the threat to religious freedom when personal faiths of candidates become partisan fodder. Yet it’s time for us all to reaffirm the Constitution’s mandate that there be no religious tests for office.
The post Abdul El-Sayed had an easy response to ‘Tommy’s’ viral gotcha moment: the U.S. Constitution appeared first on MS NOW.
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