Juan Cole Informed Comment
Hafiz Rasheed at The New Republic writes that the Democratic senatorial candidate for Michigan, Abdulrahman “Abdul” El Sayed, faced a barrage of racist attacks as soon as he won the primary on Wednesday.
Vice President J.D. Vance said, “We don’t want the next administration, whoever, you know, God forbid you’re going to have President El-Sayed in three years.”
The National Republican Senatorial Committee pledged to defeat him and referred to him by his full name, “Abdulrahman Mohamed El-Sayed.”
None of the people attacking the senatorial candidate’s name, which is a horrible, racist thing to do, actually know anything about that name.
Let’s break it down. Abdulrahman means “servant of the All-Merciful,” that is, of God in his aspect as the compassionate Lord. Actually, since Abdul just means “servant of,” it wouldn’t ordinarily stand alone. But Abdulrahman is a mouthful in any language and it is common to call people “Abdu” even in Egypt.
In the holy Qur’an, verse 25:63 speaks of “the servants of the All-Merciful who walk humbly upon the earth––and when the unruly taunt them, they reply, ‘Peace!’” Later Muslim mystics saw those servants of the All-Merciful who had the moral fiber to take such harassment and nevertheless pray for peace and security for their tormentors as saints. El Sayyid demonstrates that ability to turn the other cheek, as Christians would say.
Then there is the last name El Sayed. It would be formally transliterated “al-sayyid.” It means the Master, the leader. In Muslim society it denotes someone who is descended from the Prophet Muhammad. Sometimes such sayyids are called “sharif” or noble. It is a high-status group throughout the Muslim world.
One of the most famous people called “al-Sayyid,” ironically enough, wasn’t even a Muslim. Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar “El Cid,” d. 1099, was a Spanish military commander and one of the great generals of his age (he was a contemporary of the Normans who invaded and conquered England in 1066). He at first worked for the Castilian crown, but for a decade he served the Muslim king of Zaragoza. That was when he gained the nickname “al-Sayyid,” the noble commander, which in Spanish became El Cid. He ultimately became a ruler in his own right, taking over Valencia.
Photo of “El Cid Campeador, an outdoor equestrian statue depicting the 11-century Spanish knight and warlord El Cid by artist Anna Hyatt Huntington, architect William Templeton Johnson, and the foundry General Bronze Company, installed at Balboa Park’s Plaza de Panama in San Diego, California. The bronze sculpture was created in 1927 and dedicated on July 5, 1930” – photo by Chuang XY on Unsplash
His story was turned into a great Hollywood epic, “El Cid,” starring Charlton Heston and Sophia Loren. I’ll take Charlton Heston’s and Sophia Loren’s taste in names over that of JD Vance and Donald Trump any time.
El Cid film poster. Low resolution mage is used for identification in the context of critical commentary of the work, product or service for which it serves as poster art. Via Wikimedia Commons. Fair Use.
Then in Egypt, from where El Sayed hails, there was the intellectual giant and modernist thinker Ahmad Lutfi al-Sayyid (1872–1963). He worked against British colonial rule of Egypt (1882-1922), founding a nationalist newspaper. He translated Aristotle’s major works into Arabic and became rector of Cairo University, Egypt’s first modern university, founded in 1908.
I studied with his grand niece, Afaf Lutfi al-Sayyid Marsot, a major historian of modern Egypt, at UCLA.
Then, there is the great American, Mostafa A. El-Sayed, recipient of the National Medal of Science in chemistry: “Famous for the ‘El-Sayed rule’ in spectroscopy, he received the U.S. National Medal of Science and developed laser-based gold nanoparticle techniques to target cancer cells.”
Useless people like J.D. Vance and Donald Trump haven’t invented any “Vance” or “Trump” rules in spectroscopy, but there is an El Sayed rule. They have to make fun of the name because they are empty suits who only prosper by stirring up hate.
Former Wayne County Health Director Abdul El-Sayed speaks at a “Hands Off” protest at the Michigan Capitol in Lansing, Mich., on April 5, 2025. (Photo by Andrew Roth/Michigan Advance)
Michigan Advance May be republished online or in print under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.
As for Abdul El Sayed, the senatorial candidate, he is no mean shakes as a man of science either, having authored over 100 scientific papers and an important book on medicine and systems theory, which JD Vance wouldn’t be able to understand. He is a Rhodes Scholar and was an assistant professor of medicine at Columbia University.
One of the incidents that impelled El Sayed to go into politics was the lead poisoning of Flint, Michigan, by a penny-pinching and ignorant Republican governor, Rick Snyder.
As a physician and a man of science, Dr. El Sayed cares about ordinary Americans. Trump and Vance signally do not.
So we’d be lucky to have a president El Sayed, who wouldn’t feather his nest to the tune of billions on the backs of tax payers the way Trump has, and who wouldn’t gut the most advanced medical establishment in the world, the way Trump-Vance have. Because he is a servant of the All-Merciful.
Editor’s Note: At a moment when the once vaunted model of responsible journalism is overwhelmingly the play thing of self-serving billionaires and their corporate scribes, alternatives of integrity are desperately needed, and ScheerPost is one of them. Please support our independent journalism by contributing to our online donation platform, Network for Good, or send a check to our new PO Box. We can’t thank you enough, and promise to keep bringing you this kind of vital news.
You can also make a donation to our PayPal or subscribe to our Patreon.