Two Attendees Say Rogers Asked To Keep Arab American Meeting Quiet

(Source: MIRS.news, Published 10/12/2026) Osama Siblani, publisher of The Arab American News, says Republican U.S. Senate candidate Mike Rogers privately met with him and roughly 15 to 20 Arab American community members during his 2024 Senate campaign — then asked them not to tell the media about the meeting because some Republican voters would not support him if they knew he had met with Arabs or Muslim organizations.

Siblani disclosed the meeting to MIRS while responding to Rogers' latest attacks on Democrat Abdul El-Sayed, including a new ad released Monday seeking to associate El-Sayed and members of his family with the Muslim Brotherhood and other extremist organizations.

According to Siblani, Rogers requested the meeting before the 2024 Republican primary and attended a brunch at La Pita in Dearborn with two aides. Ali Jawad, who also attended, corroborated Siblani's account of Rogers' request.

MIRS sought comment from Rogers' campaign at 7 p.m. Monday. After exchanges continued until approximately 9 p.m., the campaign requested until Tuesday morning to provide a response to the account.

"We had a very nice talk, and we also had a very nice brunch. And then, after we finished, he asked me in front of everybody, 'Osama, please do not bring to the media that we met with you guys because some places in the Republican Party, you know, they will not vote for me if they know that I met with Arabs or Muslims,'" Siblani said, recalling the meeting.

Siblani said he honored the request when the Detroit Free Press later contacted him about the meeting, telling the outlet to ask Rogers about it instead. He said Rogers reached out again after winning the primary seeking help with a fundraiser, which Siblani said the group declined.

Rep. Alabas Farhat (D-Dearborn) said he talked with multiple people from the Muslim community who attended the meeting, but conceded he was not, personally, in the room. He was told Rogers "came on his hands and knees."

"He met with them multiple times, but when he felt the tug of the leash of his masters, he went and groveled somewhere else," Farhat said.

Rogers ended up losing Dearborn and Dearborn Heights by a combined 1,239 votes in 2024 to now-U.S. Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-Holly). Meanwhile, Donald Trump defeated Kamala Harris in Dearborn by 4,403 votes.

Trump won Michigan. Rogers lost statewide by only 19,006 votes.

The account comes as Rogers and his supporters have increasingly focused its campaign attacks on El-Sayed's relatives and their alleged connections to the Muslim Brotherhood.

The ad opens with El-Sayed denying that he and his family have ties to the Muslim Brotherhood when asked during his interview with Meet the Press on Sunday.

It then runs through a series of allegations involving El-Sayed's relatives, including claims about his sister's social media posts, his mother's former employer, his father-in-law and his sister-in-law.

It alleges El-Sayed's mother worked for a group that later provided financial support to alleged 9/11 mastermind Osama bin Laden, the Taliban and Hamas, and says his father-in-law sits on the board of an organization linked to the Muslim Brotherhood. The ad also claims his sister-in-law was previously on a terrorist watch list and his sister praised the Oct. 7 Hamas attack.

El-Sayed's sister, Eman Abdelhadi, wrote in social media posts in 2012 and 2013 that members of her family in Egypt belonged to or supported the Muslim Brotherhood, while also writing that she did not support the organization herself.

The Muslim Brotherhood as a whole, however, is not designated by the U.S. government as a Foreign Terrorist Organization. The Trump administration in January designated its Lebanese branch as a Foreign Terrorist Organization and designated the Egyptian and Jordanian branches as Specially Designated Global Terrorists.

The move marks the latest escalation from Rogers, whose campaign has repeatedly highlighted El-Sayed's family members and campaign donors in an effort to connect the Democrat to extremist organizations.

On Saturday, Rogers shared a post from Barstool Sports founder and University of Michigan alumnus Dave Portnoy, who called El-Sayed a terrorist. Portnoy's post included a video of El-Sayed joking, "Is Michigan ever going to win a football game without cheating? I say this as a Wolverine." Rogers wrote that Portnoy was "exactly right."

Siblani said the new advertisement doesn't surprise him, writing it off as a desperate measure.

"Mike Rogers is a very desperate candidate right now, because Trump has his popularity underground, below ground, actually, and he's not able to cope with all these mistakes that he made," Siblani said. "They're just trying to hang onto anything. When you're in trouble, like you're drowning, you start just kicking and yelling and screaming and trying to survive. That's what Mike Rogers is doing."

Siblani said he didn't believe the claims, but even so, he said family members shouldn't be brought into campaign messages and candidates shouldn't be judged by the choices of those around them. Instead, he suggested, voters should be able to judge the candidate and their credibility, rather than "invading other people's lives."