Abdul El-Sayed Wanted a Mosque Near Ground Zero

Long before Abdul El-Sayed became a candidate for the U.S. Senate, he publicly championed one of the most divisive proposals of the post-9/11 era: building an Islamic center and mosque near Ground Zero calling it “an exemplary response” to 9/11.

In an August 2010 Guardian column titled “Cordoba House and American values,” El-Sayed described watching the World Trade Center collapse from his high-school classroom.

“I grieved as both” an American and a Muslim, he wrote, mourning the innocent people killed as well as what he called the “purposeful misinterpretation of a creed of peace.”

The proposed project—later renamed Park51—was planned for Park Place in Lower Manhattan, roughly two blocks from the World Trade Center site. The plans included an Islamic prayer space or mosque, making the development widely known as the “Ground Zero mosque.”

El-Sayed believed its sensitive location was part of its value—and that pressing forward with a mosque near Ground Zero represented a “step in the right direction.” He rejected calls for developers to choose a less provocative location citing a lack of “inclusion” by opponents.

“In pressing ahead with its plans,” El-Sayed wrote, the organizers were affirming that “a mosque can be just as American as a church or a synagogue.”

Fortunately, the project never materialized in its originally proposed form. A smaller prayer facility operated at the property, while later redevelopment plans shifted toward luxury condominiums and a reduced cultural space.

Listed on the Debating Park 51 website is controversial activist Linda Sarsour, a longtime ally of El-Sayed. Sixteen years later, she is actively working to put El-Sayed in the U.S. Senate.

Sarsour began organizing for El-Sayed during his 2018 gubernatorial campaign, promoted fundraisers, appeared at least one town hall and announced plans to move temporarily to Michigan.

Sarsour’s controversies extend well beyond the Ground Zero mosque. She once called Zionism creepy, defended Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, praised Siraj Wahhaj, an unindicted co-conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center bombings, and said resisting the Trump administration is a form of “jihad”.

Most recently, a video circulated by DSA Watch shows Sarsour calling for the Declaration of Independence to be replaced.

A previous Michigan Enjoyer investigation found El-Sayed hired Middle Seat Consulting, a progressive consulting firm that boasts the election of Mayor Mamdani for his Senate campaign.

El-Sayed also campaigns with podcaster Hasan Piker, a mutual Sarsour ally, who once declared that “America deserved 9/11.” Sarsour and Piker appeared together at the People’s Conference in Detroit last summer amid calls for violence and increasing antisemitism. El Sayed has refused to denounce Piker and has continued to campaign with him.

What began as a plan to install a mosque near Ground Zero has become part of a durable political network stretching from New York City Hall to El-Sayed’s Michigan Senate campaign.

Michigan voters can decide whether his connections are merely a coincidence of politics—or a revealing commitment to Mamdani our Michigan.