Michigan Senate Candidate Abdul El-Sayed’s Sharia Law Defense Ignites Nationwide Firestorm

Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed ignited a fierce backlash after comparing Sharia law to Catholic canon law during an interview with Fox News host Jesse Watters.

Watters confronted El-Sayed over past comments in which he linked efforts to ban Sharia law with white supremacy.

“Nobody is trying to push Sharia law on anyone else, just like I hope nobody is trying to push canon law on anybody else,” El-Sayed said.

Critics quickly rejected that comparison, warning that Sharia is not confined to internal religious matters. It is a comprehensive legal system that has historically governed civil law, criminal punishment, marriage, family life and the affairs of the state.

“He lies and says no one is trying to push Sharia (they are), and draws a false equivalency to Christian Canon law,” Andrew Kolvet, executive producer of “The Charlie Kirk Show,” wrote on X, according to Fox News.

Kolvet explained that canon law governs churches and Christian leaders while imposing spiritual penalties rather than replacing a nation’s civil courts.

“Sharia law is MUCH more comprehensive, governing all aspects of life, and historically, and according to many contemporary Islamic clerics, dictates the affairs of the state,” Kolvet wrote.

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Conservative commentator and radio host Dana Loesch also challenged El-Sayed’s defense, writing that Sharia is “Islamic jurisprudence used to supplant western jurisprudence.”

El-Sayed’s commitment to Sharia-compliant conduct is not new. In a 2009 interview with The New York Times, he said he did not want to stand before God knowing he had chosen “the easy way instead of the Shariah-compliant way.”

Sharia has traditionally imposed severe restrictions on women, allowed child marriage and prescribed death for those who leave Islam. That is not comparable to Christian church governance.

The growing controversy surrounding El-Sayed exposes why Americans cannot dismiss concerns about Sharia as prejudice. A system capable of governing every aspect of life cannot be permitted to displace constitutional law anywhere in the United States.

James Lasher, a seasoned writer and editor at Charisma Media, combines faith and storytelling with a journalism background from Otterbein University and ministry experience in Guatemala and at the LA Dream Center. A Marine Corps and Air Force veteran, he is the author of The Revelation of Jesus: A Common Man’s Commentary and a contributor to Charisma magazine. For interviews and media inquiries, please contact media@.