Federal Records Link El-Sayed’s Mother to Money Transfers and Work for Organization that Provided “Secure Safe Harbor” for bin Laden

Full report

Michigan Democrat Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed’s biological mother, Fatten Elkomy, worked for the U.S. arm of an Islamic charity responsible for harboring Osama bin Laden. In the lead-up to the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks and the years that followed, Elkomy worked for the American arm of the Islamic African Relief Agency (IARA), which the U.S. Treasury Department [designated](https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/js2025) in 2004 under its terrorism sanctions program, citing the organization’s alleged support for and safe harboring of Osama bin Laden, al-Qaeda, the Taliban, and Hamas. “Information available to the U.S. indicates that international offices of [the Islamic Africa Relief Agency] provided direct financial support to UBL [Osama bin Laden],” the Treasury Department announced in an October 13, 2004 press release. The U.S. affiliate of the IARA later pleaded guilty to illegally sending $1.375 million into Iraq in violation of U.S. sanctions during Saddam Hussein’s tenure. A 2010 Justice Department [exhibit index](https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.mowd.80888/gov.uscourts.mowd.80888.530.0.pdf) includes descriptions of letters and transfer paperwork bearing Elkomy’s name involving tens of thousands of dollars in transfers connected to Iraq and the organization’s Middle East operation. A letter dated July 1999 from Elkomy to Khalid Al-Sudani concerned a $20,772.88 transfer linked to Iraq and Jordan. A later transfer request, dated December 2000, was from Elkomy to IARA executive director Mubarak Hamed and concerned $24,607.34 for the “Iraq office.” A companion exhibit describes a matching $24,607.34 wire from IARA-USA in Missouri to Arab Bank in Amman, Jordan, with the Islamic Relief Agency — the organization’s international affiliate — as the beneficiary. Elkomy claimed to work with “orphans and children with at least one deceased parent,” as she [told](https://web.archive.org/web/20041222220646/http://www.showmenews.com:80/2004/Oct/20041014News003.asp) the Columbia Daily Tribune in 2004. Federal agents raided the IARA-USA’s offices in October 2004. The morning following the raid, Elkomy [told](https://web.archive.org/web/20041222220646/http://www.showmenews.com:80/2004/Oct/20041014News003.asp) the Tribune that she had worked for the group since 1999 in programming, and that federal agents interviewed her for roughly three hours. At the time, Elkomy denied the charity had terrorist ties. She was never charged with a crime, but the DOJ [listed](https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/17451811/518/united-states-v-islamic-american-relief-agency/) her as a probable government witness in the case. When the IARA-USA later pled guilty to a separate Iraq-sanctions conspiracy, admitting it sent $1.375 to Iraq, while also participating in a money-laundering conspiracy and obstructing federal tax laws. The DOJ [said](https://www.justice.gov/archive/opa/pr/2008/January/08_nsd_029.html) the indictment did not charge the defendants with material support of terrorism or allege that they knowingly financed acts of terror. El-Sayed’s campaign has previously come under fire for [accepting](https://www.foxnews.com/politics/el-sayed-campaign-backed-100000-dozens-members-group-alleged-terror-ties) more than $100,000 in campaign funds from leaders of the Council on American-Islamic Relations — a group designated a terrorist organization by the United Arab Emirates and recognized as such in Florida and Texas. His father-in-law [holds](https://freebeacon.com/democrats/abdul-el-sayeds-father-in-law-a-top-donor-to-an-el-sayed-super-pac-is-among-top-leaders-of-muslim-brotherhood-organization-linked-to-terror-funding/) a leadership position in an Islamic organization that is the public-facing group for the Muslim Brotherhood, an organization linked to terror funding, the Washington Free Beacon reported. In recent interviews, El-Sayed has [refused](https://thenationaldesk.com/news/americas-news-now/ex-opponent-haley-stevens-calls-on-abdul-el-sayed-to-cut-ties-with-hasan-piker-911-senate-election) to distance himself from a prominent Democratic livestreamer and campaign surrogate, Hasan Piker, for his past comments about America deserving 9/11. “El-Sayed campaigns arm-in-arm with bigot Hasan Piker while Michigan State’s Hillel was warning students about a known antisemite on their campus,” said Republican Jewish Coalition spokesman Sam Markstein. “He’s called the government of the Jewish state as ‘evil’ as Hamas and proclaimed an ‘obligation’ to follow Sharia law until the day he dies.” The media scrutiny and backlash from Michigan voters has not stopped El-Sayed from further associations with other prominent Islamic leaders in Michigan. According to the schedule for the Islamic Society of North America’s (ISNA) 63rd annual convention, El-Sayed is slated to speak alongside a Pakistani cleric who promoted antisemitic conspiracies and forced his 13-year-old niece into marriage. The Washington Free Beacon was the first to [report](https://freebeacon.com/democrats/abdul-el-sayed-to-headline-islamic-event-alongside-pakistani-cleric-who-forced-his-13-year-old-niece-into-marriage-was-denounced-for-pedophilic-rhetoric/) on El-Sayed’s scheduled attendance at the ISNA. “Abdul El-Sayed is a direct threat to Michigan’s Jewish community, and this latest report about his mother is just the latest example why,” Markstein said. El-Sayed recently secured the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate in Michigan, defeating Congresswoman Haley Stevens. He now faces Republican Mike Rogers in the November general election.

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