El-Sayed apologizes for comments following terror attack on synagoge

Far-left Senate candidate in Michigan walks back comments made after synagogue attack which were widely perceived as justifying the incident.

By World Israel News Staff

Michigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed apologized Saturday for comments he made following the March terrorist attack on Temple Israel near Detroit.

Speaking to the Michigan Democratic Jewish Caucus during the party’s convention in Lansing, El-Sayed revisited his response to the March 12 attack on the West Bloomfield synagogue.

“I made a mistake,” he told the gathering. He added, “If my statement caused pain, I’m sorry. It was not what I intended to do.”

The controversy dates to El-Sayed’s response after Ayman Mohamad Ghazali rammed a pickup truck loaded with gasoline and commercial-grade fireworks into Temple Israel while children and staff were inside.

Ghazali exchanged gunfire with synagogue security before dying from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

El-Sayed initially condemned the attack and antisemitism.

But in subsequent remarks, he discussed the deaths of members of Ghazali’s family in an Israeli airstrike in Lebanon and said that “hurt people hurt people.”

Jewish leaders and political opponents accused him of drawing a causal connection between Israeli military actions and an attack on American Jews.

On Saturday, El-Sayed claimed he had been attempting to explain the circumstances surrounding Ghazali’s actions rather than excuse them.

“What I was trying to do was offer context for why it happened, but it wasn’t the time for context,” he said.

That distinction has become more difficult to sustain in light of the FBI’s subsequent investigation.

In its final public findings in March, the bureau concluded that Ghazali’s assault was a “Hizballah-inspired act of terrorism” that deliberately targeted Michigan’s Jewish community.

Investigators said Ghazali had researched synagogues and Jewish institutions, purchased an AR-style rifle and hundreds of rounds of ammunition and spent days planning the attack.

The FBI said Ghazali searched for the “largest gathering of israelis in Michigan,” studied Temple Israel’s events and sent messages shortly before the attack describing his intention to enter the building and kill as many people as possible. Investigators found no evidence that he had accomplices.

The remarks had already generated sharp criticism from Temple Israel itself.

Rabbi Jen Lader wrote in April that “Michigan’s Jews are not abstractions or stand-ins for a foreign government,” arguing that violence directed at a Michigan synagogue could not be treated as an extension of the Middle East conflict.

Saturday’s apology comes as El-Sayed seeks to repair strained relations with Jewish Democrats following his victory over Rep. Haley Stevens in Michigan’s closely fought Democratic Senate primary earlier this month.

He will face Republican former Rep. Mike Rogers in November in a race expected to play an important role in determining control of the Senate.

The friction has extended beyond the Temple Israel episode.

Some prominent Michigan Democrats have withheld support for El-Sayed, while his past campaign appearances with radical left-wing streamer Hasan Piker have drawn renewed scrutiny following Piker’s controversial comments about American Jews and Israel.

El-Sayed has said Piker does not speak for his campaign and has repeatedly condemned antisemitism.

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, one of the state’s most prominent Jewish Democrats and a critic of El-Sayed’s response to the synagogue attack, did not attend Saturday’s convention.

Nessel had said she was concerned about being subjected to antisemitic harassment following confrontations at an earlier party gathering.