WASHINGTON — Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed is defending his sister-in-law after reports resurfaced that she was allegedly placed on a federal terrorism watchlist during the Obama administration more than a decade ago. El-Sayed said Mariam Jukaku “did nothing wrong.”
Jukaku, the sister of El-Sayed’s wife, was among more than a dozen plaintiffs in a 2016 lawsuit challenging their inclusion in the government’s Terrorism Screening Database.
“She did nothing wrong and was captured on that and then sued and got off,” El-Sayed told Fox News on Saturday night.
Federal officials generally do not confirm or deny whether a person appears on a terrorism watchlist, nor do they typically explain the reasons for any listing. Jukaku’s case was brought with the assistance of attorneys affiliated with the Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR.
According to the lawsuit, Jukaku was trying to board a flight at Detroit Metropolitan Airport in 2012 when her boarding pass was marked “SSSS,” short for Secondary Security Screening Selection. The designation, the suit alleged, suggested she had been classified as a “known or suspected terrorist.”
“While passing through security, she was subjected to extensive searches, pat-downs and chemical testing,” the lawsuit stated.
Placement on a terrorism watchlist, by itself, does not establish that an individual has committed a crime.
The lawsuit did not identify the specific basis for Jukaku’s alleged inclusion in the Terrorism Screening Database. At the time, however, she was an editor at Al-Talib, a University of California, Los Angeles publication, according to the Los Angeles Times and the Daily Bruin.
Reports said federal authorities had allegedly “shut down” three major advertisers connected to the publication over suspected ties to terrorism. Jukaku was described as having publicly criticized those actions.
The Federalist also reported that Jukaku came to the attention of law enforcement in 2007, while attending graduate school at Syracuse University, after photographing federal facilities.
The 2016 class-action lawsuit sought financial damages from the federal government. The parties agreed to dismiss that case in 2017. A separate lawsuit seeking an injunction against the government initially prevailed, but the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals overturned that ruling in 2021.
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The Post said it could not reach Jukaku for comment. It contacted attorneys involved in the litigation as well as El-Sayed’s campaign.
El-Sayed also criticized the watchlist system, telling Fox News that people can be treated as “guilty until proven innocent” because of their names and what he described as infrastructure established by figures such as his Republican opponent, Mike Rogers.
The government has placed prominent officials on similar security lists. Former Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, for instance, was reportedly added to the Transportation Security Administration’s “Quiet Skies” program, allegedly because of patterns related to her international travel.
Opponents of terrorism watchlists argue that the programs provide limited due process and that many listed individuals do not know they have been flagged.
El-Sayed’s family connections to several Islamic organizations have also become a point of contention in his closely fought campaign against Rogers.
Tweets from 2012 showed that El-Sayed’s half-sister, University of Chicago professor Eman Abdelhadi, said the family supported the Muslim Brotherhood.
The Muslim Brotherhood has radical offshoots, including Hamas, and is designated as a terrorist organization by Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. The United States does not currently apply that designation to the Brotherhood as a whole.
On Saturday, a voter named Tommy asked El-Sayed whether he would publicly reject the Muslim Brotherhood.
“Sure. Yeah, absolutely,” El-Sayed answered, before criticizing the premise of the question.
“You assume, Tommy, that because I am Muslim, that somehow, I would have allegiance to something that is not our Constitution,” he said. “That’s implicit in the question.”
The Michigan Senate hopeful invoked the skepticism that John F. Kennedy faced over his Catholic faith when he ran for president in 1960.
El-Sayed is set to debate Rogers on Wednesday and then stump with former President Barack Obama on Saturday.