CHANTILLY, Va. — Three days after Abdul El-Sayed’s landmark election as the first Muslim senator in the United States, a black GMC Yukon Denali pulled up to a side entrance of an upscale Marriott conference center outside Washington, D.C. It was 7:39 p.m. on Friday.
A man got out of the front passenger seat and opened the rear door. El-Sayed stepped out to attend the Arab America Foundation’s CONNECT Empowerment Summit, hosted by a nonprofit whose leaders had backed his campaign.
Shielded by the man’s arm, the senator-elect climbed from the SUV, put on his jacket and headed inside. The Democratic Party’s newest star had arrived—and the evening soon made clear that his appeal reached well beyond the ballroom.
Over the next 45 minutes, the gathering offered a glimpse of some of the activists, organizations and political ideas connected to El-Sayed’s rise. His supporters include disaffected Democrats, as well as people and groups from socialist, communist, Muslim and Arab advocacy circles.
In the hallway, CodePink co-founder Medea Benjamin paced in a bright pink tunic, leggings and white boots. The far-left organization has received funding from Neville Roy Singham, an American-born businessman based in Shanghai whose support for left-wing groups has drawn scrutiny from lawmakers and prosecutors. CodePink’s other co-founder, Jodie Evans, is married to Singham.
Benjamin’s husband, fellow CodePink activist Tighe Barry, wore a traditional Chinese-style jacket and a khaki cap resembling those associated with Mao. A five-pointed star was displayed on the cap. His backpack featured a keffiyeh pattern and watermelon imagery, both adopted as symbols by some pro-Palestinian activists.
They were not the only prominent anti-Israel activists in El-Sayed’s wider political circle. His rise has also been backed by Linda Sarsour and left-wing streamer Hasan Piker, who once said Hamas was “1,000 times better” than Israel. Piker later described the remark as deliberately provocative.
Friday’s event brought together activists from a range of political traditions. Some observers have described the overlap between socialist and communist groups and Muslim and Arab advocacy organizations as a “red-green” network. The groups do not necessarily share one ideology or a formal structure, but have found common ground on issues such as Israel and U.S. foreign policy.
The celebration did not fit a simple religious or political mold. El-Sayed has faced questions about political Islam and the Muslim Brotherhood. He has denied belonging to the organization, though reports have pointed to alleged family connections, and he has written positively about some of its leaders.
Women danced and sang with their hair uncovered and shoulders bare, giving the event an openly cultural and secular feel. A table for Jinba Village and School, near Hebron in the West Bank, displayed a flyer calling for an end to settler outposts and urging people to contact Congress. Another table sold keffiyehs patterned with outlines of Palestinian territory rather than the traditional fishbone design.
In one corner, a fundraiser offered a handmade wooden outline of Palestine, painted in the colors of the Palestinian flag. The opening bid was $100.
Benjamin later sat beside Hazami Barmada, a Syrian American activist known for anti-Israel demonstrations and political stunts in Virginia, Maryland and Washington. Barmada has disrupted offices including those of Palantir Technologies, Lockheed Martin and PETA, and has confronted officials from both the Biden and Trump administrations over U.S. ties with Israel. She wore a keffiyeh wrapped over her hair.
Benjamin, Barry and Barmada declined to answer questions. Their presence brought several strands of El-Sayed’s coalition into one room: socialist and pro-communist activists, alongside Arab, Muslim and pro-Palestinian groups and advocates who supported his candidacy.
The Arab America Foundation was established by Warren David and Dr. Amal David to promote Arab heritage and connect and empower Arab Americans. It describes itself as nonpartisan, although political engagement is part of its programming. Its leaders were preparing to welcome the country’s first Muslim senator.
The following morning, the summit’s “Leading from the Front” program featured Abbas Alawieh and Layla Elabed, co-chairs of the Uncommitted National Movement. The group organized Democratic voters in 2024 to cast “uncommitted” ballots in protest of the Biden administration’s approach to Israel and the Gaza war. El-Sayed supported the effort.
The program also included Anas Shallal, chief executive of Washington restaurant and bookstore Busboys and Poets, which has hosted events with left-wing organizations, including groups in Singham’s network. The events have addressed subjects ranging from Israel and the Trump administration to immigration enforcement. Arab American Institute founder James Zogby was also among the dozens of artists, musicians and civic and business figures on the summit’s roster.
But on Friday night, El-Sayed was the main attraction.
Benjamin, Barry and Barmada moved between hallways as organizers and supporters tried to work out which entrance he would use. Eventually, supporters gathered near a doorway beside displays showing Israel and the Palestinian territories as a single Palestinian state.
At 7:51 p.m., El-Sayed came through a side door, smiling broadly. The room broke into zaghrouta, the high-pitched celebratory ululation often heard at Arab weddings.
Barry, still wearing his Mao-style cap, filmed El-Sayed on his phone. As the senator-elect passed Benjamin and Barmada, Barry turned the camera toward Benjamin, who raised and pumped her hands in celebration. The crowd cheered as El-Sayed made his way to the stage.
Before he spoke, the conversation had already turned to the presidency. Emcee Ameera David, a journalist and daughter of the foundation’s founders, told the audience that her seven-year-old Egyptian American son had asked her after El-Sayed’s election, “Mom, can he run for president?”
“Yeah!” someone shouted, setting off cheers and applause.
David said she had answered, “Yes he can,” then added, “And you can, too.” El-Sayed smiled.
The talk came hours after El-Sayed registered Habibi PAC with the Federal Election Commission. The committee is a leadership PAC, separate from his main campaign, and gives him a way to raise money and contribute to other candidates and political committees. Its creation added to the evening’s discussion of his future beyond the Senate.
The name uses an Arabic term of endearment that El-Sayed made widely known during his election-night speech. He had also used it to address Vice President JD Vance, saying “JD, habibi” while noting that Vance would swear him into the Senate in January. In a matter of days, the phrase had become the name of a federal political committee.
Then Issam Andoni, chair of the Arab America Foundation, addressed the crowd. A local technology entrepreneur and longtime El-Sayed supporter, Andoni wore a scarf patterned with the keffiyeh’s fishbone design and the word “PALESTINE.” He criticized President Trump and Republicans and praised El-Sayed’s victory over what he called the “Democrat Zionist.”
“But Habibi Abdul,” Andoni said, drawing laughter and applause, “you destroyed them all.” El-Sayed smiled without speaking.
Andoni said El-Sayed had defeated AIPAC both in the primary and in the general election. He praised the candidate’s “steel backbone,” saying it had helped build a movement that would continue to grow and connect with others.
Andoni invoked the Arabic word sumud, meaning steadfastness, and said he believed Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank and Lebanon would see “a free Palestine from the river to the sea.” A woman in the audience shouted, “Palestine will be free.”
Andoni continued, calling for a Palestine free of occupation, Zionists, corruption and apartheid. The phrase “from the river to the sea” is sharply disputed. Supporters describe it as a demand for Palestinian freedom; critics, including many Jewish organizations, view it as a call to eliminate Israel as a Jewish state between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea.
That dispute became more concrete when attendees were asked what Palestinian freedom meant to them. Abdullah Abualrub, a Virginia organizer for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, was staffing the organization’s table and made clear he was speaking for himself, not on CAIR’s behalf.
Abualrub said he supported a Palestinian right of return, adding that his own family was part of the Palestinian diaspora. He said his ideal was for everyone to live in peace, and that Jewish people who obey the law should be free to live wherever they want.
Experts have said that principles known as thawabet, adopted by the Palestinian national movement decades ago, include a broader political vision: a one-state solution “free from Zionists,” along with a right of return to present-day Israel for Palestinians displaced during Israel’s creation and their descendants. El-Sayed’s spokesperson did not respond to a request for his position on a one-state solution that includes such a right of return.
After a brief embrace with Andoni, El-Sayed took the microphone. He introduced himself by his full name, Abdul-Rehman Mohammed El-Sayed, and said he was honored to become Michigan’s next U.S. senator, representing what he called the “capital of Arab America.”
He recounted familiar stories about his name and identity: the difficulty many Americans have pronouncing it, his grandmother’s habit of telling him that each cousin had some quality he lacked, and his decision to shorten Abdul-Rahman to Abdul when Paula Abdul and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar had made the name recognizable.
Six minutes into his remarks, Rima Ayyash stood from the front row and let out another zaghrouta. El-Sayed paused as the room responded.
“I don’t know how one follows that up,” he said.
He then shifted from identity and domestic policy to foreign affairs and Israel. As he spoke about building a society that included everyone, some supporters moved toward a reporter, blocking footage and repeatedly telling the credentialed journalist to leave the area near the stage, where other media members were gathered.
One of them, Omar Kurdi, was a featured summit speaker and had just whispered to Barmada. Kurdi, a Cincinnati singer and rehabilitation nonprofit executive, released a song called “I am Palestinian” the previous October. Its video included anti-Israel protest footage and repeated the line, “From the river to the sea, liberation is all I see.”
Andoni questioned why a reporter was covering what he described as a cultural, rather than political, event. The foundation’s co-founders eventually intervened and told the group to stop confronting the journalist.
At the microphone, El-Sayed spoke about self-determination and the international system established after World War II. He praised America’s ideals, then argued that the country had helped create a rules-based global order through institutions such as the United Nations, the World Health Organization and the international courts, only to violate those same principles itself.
El-Sayed’s criticism echoed language used by Singham the previous year. Singham had argued that the existing international order rested on a false account of World War II and called for a new order based on multilateralism promoted by Chinese President Xi Jinping and the Chinese Communist Party.
El-Sayed turned back to Palestinians, asking why people could not support equal rights to peace, dignity and self-determination. He said Palestinian children should be able to grow up in the land of their ancestors without fearing bombs funded by U.S. taxpayers.
“We don’t want our tax dollars spent abroad to do genocide, apartheid, and war,” he said, repeating a message often heard from demonstrators associated with the red-green coalition. He added that his supporters believed in equal rights to peace, dignity and self-determination.
After the speech, Andoni said his first priority for El-Sayed in the Senate would be cutting aid to Israel, especially military assistance. He called it the community’s leading concern, while acknowledging that El-Sayed had also emphasized issues such as Medicare for All.
“If it’s up to me,” Andoni said, ending military aid to Israel was what he would advise. He did not mention that Trump had announced the previous week an end to the roughly $4 billion in U.S. aid currently provided to Israel.
Andoni also welcomed the idea of an El-Sayed presidential campaign, though he questioned whether the country was ready for one.
CAIR’s presence at the summit offered another look at the political organizations around El-Sayed. Abualrub’s table displayed pocket-sized guides explaining what to do if approached by law enforcement. The first tip read: “You have the right to remain silent.”
CAIR is a nonprofit that does not endorse candidates, Abualrub noted. Its separate political arm, CAIR Action, did endorse El-Sayed, and an affiliated super PAC, the Unity and Justice Fund, independently spent more than $445,000 in support of his Senate campaign, according to campaign-finance records. A review of the records also found more than $100,000 in contributions to El-Sayed from current or former CAIR employees and leaders.
Asked what connected CAIR to El-Sayed’s message, Abualrub said the organization wanted more aid for Palestinians. Speaking personally, he said he wanted an end to what he called genocide and to U.S. tax dollars funding it.
Not everyone at the summit focused first on foreign policy. Will Langhorne, a Washington resident and former professional race car driver, described a lot of excitement around El-Sayed but said it was too early to talk seriously about a presidential run.
Langhorne said El-Sayed’s appeal was rooted in inclusion and concern for Michigan residents, including on health care and affordability. Foreign policy, he said, was not the main issue connecting El-Sayed with voters in the state.
Mohammed Al-Bidawi, an Egyptian American attendee, saw the presidential talk as a question of representation. He said it was striking to see someone named Abdul-Rahman being urged to run for president. Even if El-Sayed never did, Al-Bidawi said, the prospect of a Muslim and Arab American presidential candidate would show that “we are equal.”
Another attendee, Hisham, who said he was from Palestine, advised patience. El-Sayed should first prove himself as a senator, he said, and only then consider seeking higher office.
Political speeches were interspersed with cultural performances. Jordanian singer Hussam Allabad, seated near Benjamin and Barmada, stood up and interrupted El-Sayed to record a selfie video. He led the crowd in traditional Jordanian ahāzīj—rhythmic folk chants with call-and-response singing and synchronized clapping, often performed at weddings and celebrations.
El-Sayed eventually returned to the meaning of his election and the conflict involving Israel. “Michigan proved that Arab America is America, too,” he said.
He called for an America that stood with democracy against genocide and upheld international law. He also said he wanted U.S. tax dollars invested in Americans rather than used to buy bombs and tanks for other countries.
The Arab America Foundation presented El-Sayed with its first Pathbreaker Award. About 40 minutes after his SUV had arrived, board members gathered for final photographs. A supporter handed him a baseball cap. El-Sayed read the words on it and grinned: “JD HABIBI.”
The election-night phrase had become campaign-style merchandise. Wearing the cap, El-Sayed left the stage and went through the side door, passing through a corridor of volunteers holding back the crowd.
Outside, a reporter asked why he had created Habibi PAC and whether he wanted higher office. El-Sayed paused, looked toward the camera and pointed to his hat. Asked whether he was pursuing the presidency, he replied, “Nope, I want to serve my state as U.S. senator.”
He then got into the waiting Yukon. His security team let him finish speaking before closing the door, and at 8:24 p.m., 45 minutes after his arrival, the vehicle pulled away.
Back inside, Benjamin danced to a live performance by Franco-Algerian singer Nadir Benmansour, moving among the dancers with her arms raised. Former Al Jazeera bureau chief Abderrahim Foukara shared a video of the scene under the headline “Of protest and celebration.”
The activism continued after the summit. On Saturday night, Barmada and other activists disrupted a Washington Capitals hockey game by unfurling an Israeli flag smeared with red paint resembling blood and bearing the words “ISRAEL KILLS.” Barmada later shared a celebratory video of the incident. Fans shouted at the group to leave.
On Sunday evening, Benjamin posted a video titled “A NEW DAWN IN CONGRESS,” featuring highlights from Friday, including Barry’s footage of her raising her hands as El-Sayed took the stage.
“There is hope,” she said over music from the ballroom.
