Fatwas, holy wars and socialism: Inside the Islamic conference where El-Sayed drew a heros welcome

DETROIT, Mich. — Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed headlined an Islamic conference over Labor Day weekend where the United States was described as an empire in decline, early Islamic conquests were praised and the aftermath of 9/11 was framed around Islamophobia and discrimination.

The event, held annually by the Islamic Society of North America, featured a range of speakers discussing topics from Muslim civic participation to the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas. 

Over the course of the conferences speeches and panel discussions, participants took positions that were generally critical of the United States and the broader Western world and expressed opinions that some may regard as extreme.

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Fox News Digital attended the event over the weekend, sitting in on many of the panels held on Saturday and Sunday before and after El-Sayed's speech. The Michigan Democrat is running in one of the most hotly contested Senate races of the 2026 cycle, the outcome of which may decide control of the Senate.

At one panel, "Rising Islamophobia in the U.S.," a speaker described recently passed legislation that could bar colleges participating in certain commercial boycotts of Israel from receiving some federal higher education funds as "an anti-Muslim bill."

Shortly after that, a man in the audience wearing a Pakistani flag pin stood up and called for a fatwa to be issued against the bipartisan group of lawmakers who voted for the bill. A fatwa is a religious ruling or opinion that can range from a formal condemnation to, in some cases, a call for or justification of violence.

The legislation was introduced by Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., and co-sponsored by Rep. Josh Gottheimer, D-N.J.

After the man called for a fatwa against members of Congress, members of the audience — and one panelist — applauded.

Earlier, during the same discussion, a panelist criticized Congress for moving to censure Reps. Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib for making "​​the most lighthearted comments"

Tlaib was censured in part for endorsing the phrase "from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free," which calls for the destruction of Israel as bounded by the Jordan River in the east and the Mediterranean Sea in the west. Critics characterized the phrase as a call for ethnic cleansing, while the congresswoman defended it as "an aspirational call for freedom, human rights and peaceful coexistence."

ISNA is a nonprofit Muslim religious organization established in 1981 to provide America's growing Muslim population with a platform for civic coordination and education. Detroit, where the event took place, is situated in a metropolitan area that has a significant Arab American population concentrated in areas such as Dearborn and Hamtramck.

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Panelists also accused billionaire Elon Musk of funding a White supremacist global anti-Muslim movement, suggested that some of the narrative regarding 9/11 taught in American schools has been "debunked" and asserted that Muslims were treated unfairly in the wake of the 2001 attacks.

Criticism of Americas response