A viral Detroit pastor is warning that Michigan's Democratic Senate nominee could use the office to push Sharia law, igniting a firestorm in the state's high-stakes race against Mike Rogers.
A viral Detroit pastor who made national headlines for confronting the Dearborn city council is now training his fire on Michigan's Democratic Senate nominee, warning that sending him to Washington could put the country on a path to Sharia law. The blunt assessment from Pastor Lorenzo Sewell of 180 Church has injected fresh energy into one of the most closely watched Senate races in the country. With control of the Senate hanging in the balance, the exchange is giving voters a stark look at the man who could be Michigan's next senator.
Sewell, who went viral last week for telling Dearborn council members that "we are not a nation of Muslims, we are a nation of Christians," did not hold back when asked about Abdul El-Sayed's campaign. "Can you imagine him being in the Senate, being able to recommend federal judges to presidents?" Sewell asked. "That's his goal. His goal is to be able to recommend federal judges to presidents for appointments, and then we're going to find ourselves in Sharia law all over this land."
The pastor's concern is not hypothetical. Senators routinely recommend judicial and executive appointees to the White House, and the Senate confirms every federal judge in the country. Sewell argues that handing El-Sayed that kind of influence would be a disaster for American institutions.
The warning stems in part from El-Sayed's own words. In a 2009 interview, the Democratic nominee said he was following Sharia law when he took out a special loan for an Ann Arbor condo. Sharia law generally prohibits charging interest on loans, and Sharia-compliant financing structures often fold the interest into the purchase price instead.
"Ultimately, the question is, when I die and I stand before God and go through everything I did in my life, I don't want to say I did it the easy way instead of the Shariah-compliant way," El-Sayed told the outlet at the time. His campaign says he opposes any effort by any religious community to write their faith laws into the laws of the country, and his spokeswoman dismissed Sewell's comments as "cheap attacks and hateful rhetoric" from an ally of his Republican opponent, Mike Rogers.
Sewell also hammered El-Sayed over his association with Hasan Piker, a socialist streamer who once said America deserved 9/11 and has praised Mao Zedong and Communist China. El-Sayed campaigned alongside Piker earlier this month and only distanced himself after Piker made remarks about Jewish Americans that critics called antisemitic victim-blaming. "I believe that there's treason for you to say those type of words, that America deserves 9/11," Sewell said.
The pastor did not stop there. He accused El-Sayed and other prominent Muslim politicians of resisting assimilation into American culture and called the nominee a "fake doctor," noting that while El-Sayed earned an M.D. from Columbia University, he never completed a residency and has not held a medical license in Michigan or New York. Sewell, who hosted Donald Trump at his church during the 2024 campaign and spoke at the Republican National Convention, closed with a simple argument: "This is one nation under the God of the Bible."
The Michigan race is shaping up as a referendum on the Democratic Party's progressive wing. El-Sayed, a former Detroit health director, has embraced the party's left flank, while Rogers, a former congressman and FBI agent, is running as the law-and-order alternative. Democrats are defending the seat in a state that has become a national battleground, and the controversy gives Republicans a potent line of attack heading into the fall.
Sewell's warning is already spreading online, and his viral moment at the Dearborn council meeting has made him a sought-after voice in the campaign. Whether the controversy moves voters remains to be seen, but one thing is clear: El-Sayed's record is now front and center in a race that could help decide which party controls the Senate.
A viral Detroit pastor is warning that Michigan's Democratic Senate nominee could use the office to push Sharia law, igniting a firestorm in the state's high-stakes race against Mike Rogers.
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