Abdul for U.S. Senate declines to comment on Sharia speech report
Abdul for U.S. SenateAbdul El-Sayed's U.S. Senate campaign team responding to Reuters; individual spokesperson unnamed
Reuters reported that El-Sayed's campaign team declined to comment during its examination of a resurfaced 2022 speech about an Oklahoma proposal concerning Sharia law.
“El-Sayed’s campaign team declined to comment.”
Reporting
Where this statement fits
Abdul El-Sayed’s Sharia-law defense: religious freedom or support for religious government?
JD Vance characterized Abdul El-Sayed’s opposition to Sharia bans as support for Sharia and hostility to its critics. El-Sayed defended his position as equal religious freedom and rejected imposing his faith. Hasan Piker challenged the premise of a threatened imposition while questioning El-Sayed’s reliance on a canon-law analogy. Andrew Kolvet, Dana Loesch and Todd Aglialoro disputed that analogy, arguing that it understated Sharia’s relationship to civil government.
Source and context
Reporting
About this source
Original Reuters reporting on the resurfaced October 2022 CAIR-Oklahoma speech. The report explicitly says El-Sayed's campaign team declined to comment. It does not identify an individual spokesperson or the date of the request/decline. The source publication timestamp is verified from Reuters metadata, not the unknown time of the campaign's decline. A September 8 notice corrects Nancy Mace's title in Reuters's article; that is not a correction by us or a newly issued campaign response. The archived Mace post and complete 2022 video have not been independently checked for this addition.
Before the quotation
Reuters examined claims about a clipped October 2022 speech and described the fuller remarks as criticism of an Oklahoma proposal rather than advocacy for imposing Sharia in the United States.
After the quotation
The report gives no separate date or reason for the decline. Reuters's September 8 correction concerns Nancy Mace's title, not a new campaign response. The quoted line is the reporter's description of the action, not verbatim campaign wording.
How this statement is classified
The label describes this statement's response within the context above.
Why this label?
Reuters explicitly records a decline in response to its inquiry. The evidence supports a campaign-level refusal, not silence, an endorsement of any characterization or a personal refusal by El-Sayed.
- Recorded on
- Published here
More from this case
Read the full caseMatt Whitlock says El-Sayed "has spoken out on support of Sharia law"
“This is a pretty wild pretzel to twist into just to justify supporting somebody who actually has spoken out on support of Sharia law.”Read statement
Evita Duffy-Alfonso says El-Sayed "likes Sharia law"
“Abdul El-Sayed likes Sharia law, wants racial reparations, and hates American football. He comes from a violent tradition that is fundamentally incompatible with American culture and values.”Read statement
Mehdi Hasan calls the claim that El-Sayed pushes Sharia law absurd
“So the idea that they're pushing Sharia law is absurd.”Read statement
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- Abdul for U.S. Senate declines to comment on Sharia speech report
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The Dispute Index. "Abdul for U.S. Senate declines to comment on Sharia speech report". First published: 2026-09-11. Last updated: 2026-09-30. https://disputeindex.com/events/465-reuters-reported-that-el-sayed-s-campaign-team