<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/tag/michigan/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Michigan</a> Democratic <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/section/senate/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Senate</a> nominee <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/tag/abdul-el-sayed/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Abdul el Sayed</a> apologized to a group of <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/tag/jews/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Jewish</a> voters on Saturday for a statement he made in March in response to a <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/crime/4509827/michigan-synagogue-attack-terrorism-hezbollah/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Hezbollah-inspired attack</a> on a synagogue in West Bloomfield.</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">While at an event hosted by the Michigan Democratic Jewish Caucus, el Sayed said, “If my statement caused pain, I’m sorry. That’s not what I intended,” <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/29/us/politics/el-sayed-apology-jewish-democrats.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">according to</a> the <em>New York Times</em>. El Sayed faced criticism in the spring for stating in a <a href="https://x.com/AbdulElSayed/status/2032529011646038257" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">video statement</a> that “hurt people hurt people” after a rifle-wielding individual <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/crime/4491017/fbi-michigan-synagogue-attack-targeted-act-violence/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">drove a truck</a> into the Temple Israel synagogue in what the FBI classified as a “targeted act of violence.”</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">The gunman, Ayman Mohamad Ghazali, drove through the halls of the synagogue with explosives and a rifle in his vehicle before being killed in an exchange of gunfire with law enforcement on March 12. No injuries were reported in the incident, including among children attending the synagogue’s early childhood development program, which was in session that morning. Governor <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/tag/gretchen-whitmer/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Gretchen Whitmer</a> (D-MI) later stated that the attack “was antisemitic” and stemmed from “hate, plain and simple.”</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">While Whitmer and Senator Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/crime/4491017/fbi-michigan-synagogue-attack-targeted-act-violence/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">strongly condemned</a> the violence and urged Michiganders to call out antisemitism whenever they see it, el Sayed received backlash for linking Ghazali’s actions to military tensions between Israel and Lebanon.</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">“As an epidemiologist, I’ve spent my career studying the worst things that happen to people to understand how to stop them from happening,” el Sayed said in the statement. “And I’ll never forget one of the simplest lessons I learned while on my psychiatry rotation while in medical school: Hurt people hurt people. Violence is a cycle. Ayman Ghazali lost family, including two children, in an airstrike in Lebanon last week. They were innocent people. And then, in an evil act of displaced rage, he tried to take it out on innocent children who had nothing to do with the loss of the innocent children he lost, except that they share a faith.”</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">“I made a mistake,” he said Saturday to the Jewish group. “I should have issued a statement, of course condemning it, and it just should have been the full stop.” El Sayed also reportedly told attendees, “no one deserves to have their pain trampled on.”</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/crime/4490089/fbi-respond-shooting-attack-on-temple-israel-synagogue/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><strong>FBI RESPONDS TO ATTACK ON TEMPLE ISRAEL SYNAGOGUE IN MICHIGAN</strong></a></p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">El Sayed has faced controversy over his views on Israel and campaigning alongside internet personality <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/tag/hasan-piker/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Hasan Piker</a>. He is one of many socialist Democrats who have gained prominence ahead of November’s midterm elections.</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">He is running against Republican Mike Rogers in one of the nation’s high-profile races. The two <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/campaigns/congressional/4699108/rogers-agree-debate-el-sayed-michigan-senate/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">recently agreed</a> to an Oct. 8 debate.</p>