{"id":692120,"date":"2026-10-24T15:50:40","date_gmt":"2026-10-24T15:50:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/?p=692120"},"modified":"2026-10-24T15:50:40","modified_gmt":"2026-10-24T15:50:40","slug":"murphy-calls-national-security-scrutiny-islamophobia-connecticuts-curriculum-process-shows-why-that-matters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/?p=692120","title":{"rendered":"Murphy Calls National Security Scrutiny \u201cIslamophobia.\u201d Connecticut\u2019s Curriculum Process Shows Why That Matters"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Screenshot, CNN<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Please follow us on Gab<\/a>, Minds<\/a>, Telegram<\/a>, Rumble<\/a>, Truth Social<\/a>, Gettr<\/a>, X<\/a>, Youtube<\/a>, Instagram<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Originally published at The Connecticut Centinal<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Senator Chris Murphy went on CNN this week and did what Democrats have perfected: he took a debate about ideology, associations, and national security and reframed it as straight-up religious bigotry.<\/p>\n

Murphy\u2019s claim is that Republican Michigan Senate candidate Mike Rogers is trafficking in \u201cracism and bigotry\u201d and basic Islamophobia for pressing<\/a> Abdul El-Sayed on his documented ties and associations. Rogers\u2019 actual comments, and the record of course, tell a different story.<\/p>\n

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I\u2019ve done a lot of cable news interviews over the years, but I still get questions that shock me. pic.twitter.com\/FnV7Y0yeNI<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Chris Murphy \ud83d\udfe7 (@ChrisMurphyCT) October 22, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Rogers has repeatedly drawn the distinction Murphy pretends does not exist.<\/p>\n

In post-debate remarks he said he disagrees with Islamophobia, that nobody should practice it, and that the issue is not \u201cthe way you pray\u201d but \u201cthe way you think.\u201d Rogers has noted that many Muslims on his own campaign and in the broader community oppose<\/a> the Muslim Brotherhood. In the debate and subsequent interviews he focused<\/a> on El-Sayed\u2019s alleged funding links to donors connected to CAIR and groups associated with Hamas and Hezbollah, family statements, and specific political associations\u2014not on El-Sayed\u2019s personal faith or ordinary Muslim practice.<\/p>\n

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Those associations are not imaginary.<\/p>\n

El-Sayed signed<\/a> a 2012 Arabic-language letter, published while he was a medical student, as one of 46 \u201cleaders of the Egyptian community.\u201d The letter backed<\/a> Mohamed Morsi\u2019s power grab and called on the Muslim Brotherhood-aligned president to \u201cpurge the media and the police as quickly as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

His half-sister later posted<\/a> that the family \u201chas long been MB,\u201d referenced their mother\u2019s activism in the Brotherhood in 1970s Egypt, and noted relatives jailed for it. El-Sayed has denied the family claims (calling the posts \u201chearsay\u201d) and has disavowed<\/a> the Brotherhood in some settings, but he has not substantively addressed<\/a> the 2012 letter.<\/p>\n

As an undergraduate he also served<\/a> as vice president of the Muslim Students Association at the University of Michigan\u2014an organization with documented historical origins linked to Brotherhood networks and listed<\/a> in the Explanatory Memorandum fr\u200bom the Holy Land Foundation trial.<\/p>\n

His father-in-law has held<\/a> leadership roles with ISNA and CAIR-Michigan.<\/p>\n

Murphy\u2019s CNN framing erases all of those facts. Scrutiny of a candidate\u2019s political affiliations, funding sources, and ideological statements is suddenly labeled \u201cIslamophobia\u201d the moment the candidate is Muslim. That is not analysis. It is a rhetorical shield.<\/p>\n

The same pattern appears closer to home. FOIA records show<\/a> that Connecticut\u2019s Islamic and Arab Studies Curriculum Design Team includes a CAIR National consultant (Maryam Hasan) and multiple candidates selected with CAIR-CT\u2019s input. CAIR has long faced questions over its own associations and has been named an unindicted co-conspirator in major terrorism-financing cases. Yet when legitimate concerns are raised about those associations\u2014whether in a Senate race or in the development of state curriculum materials\u2014the response fr\u200bom figures like Murphy is to label the questions themselves as bigotry.<\/p>\n

Leave it to Murphy to turn legitimate questions about ideology and associations with known terror organizations into an accusation of religious hatred. By labeling any scrutiny \u201cIslamophobic,\u201d it shifts the conversation fr\u200bom El Sayed’s record (what he signed, what family members publicly said, which groups he led or is connected to through relatives) to a claim of religious animus. That move does not shield ordinary Muslims fr\u200bom discrimination. It just protects political actors fr\u200bom accountability for the company they keep and the statements they have endorsed.<\/p>\n

‘NO AD’ subscription for CDM! Sign up here and support real investigative journalism and help save the republic!<\/strong><\/a><\/h2>\n

<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Screenshot, CNN Please follow us on Gab, Minds, Telegram, Rumble, Truth Social, Gettr, X, Youtube, Instagram Originally published at The Connecticut Centinal. Senator Chris Murphy went on CNN this week and did what Democrats have perfected: he took a debate about ideology, associations, and national security and reframed it as straight-up religious bigotry. Murphy\u2019s claim… Continue reading Murphy Calls National Security Scrutiny \u201cIslamophobia.\u201d Connecticut\u2019s Curriculum Process Shows Why That Matters<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[17,22,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-692120","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-border-security","category-immigration","category-immigration-reform","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/692120","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=692120"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/692120\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=692120"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=692120"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=692120"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}