Michigan election: How Abdul El-Sayed's critics smeared his defence of Palestinians as 'hate'

Michigan election: Critics turned Abdul El-Sayed's defence of Palestinians into a slur of hate

Abdul El-Sayed, the first Muslim American elected to the US Senate, won Michigan's US Senate seat on 3 November. During his victory speech, El-Sayed used the words "hate" or "hateful" five times, each time conveying a different meaning. He defended his opponents' ideology, stating that those who called him hateful were actually the ones harboring hate.

El-Sayed accused his Republican opponent, Mike Rogers, of supporting hate, saying, "You chose hate, and Michigan chose hope." He later turned the rhetoric of hate against his opponents, using it as a weapon rather than accepting it as a name. Hate, as the currency of American politics, gets minted, exchanged, and spent, ultimately determining the moral standing and votes of individuals.

Throughout the campaign, El-Sayed faced hate from his opponents. Rogers regularly denounced El-Sayed's "hateful ideology," and Democratic Congresswoman Haley Stevens even said she could not vote for him because he was against "hate." The word "hate" circulates in various directions, but its value differs when aimed at El-Sayed versus Rogers. While the latter was accused of bigotry and fear-mongering, the former was also accused of terrorism and radicalism.