This is a milestone for Muslim Americans who had to watch, along with their children, as El-Sayed was attacked with increasing anti-Muslim rhetoric, including directly from the president of the United States. It comes at a time of rising in Islamophobia nationwide.
Roula Allouch, an Arab American Muslim, told the BBC she had goosebumps from the success of the campaign.
“I’m proud of Abdul, the campaign that he ran, his family for their perseverance through all the hate, the Islamophobic rhetoric that was thrown at him throughout this campaign,” she said.
Another Muslim woman in the crowd was equally moved and told the BBC his win meant everything to her.
“He makes us so proud and it just makes us feel like we can stand a little taller, broaden our shoulders and know somebody has our back and that he’s going to be in Washington really fighting for us,” she said.
El-Sayed has certainly shown on the campaign trail that he’s willing to hit back at Maga attacks. In his victory speech, he used the Arabic phrase “Alhamdullah”, and then trolled Republicans by saying that “for the rightwing ops, that just means praise be to God”.
El-Sayed, 42, represents a generation of Arab Americans and Muslims who were born in the United States to immigrant parents and grew up in post-9/11 America.
Celebrating with family from Chicago, another South Asian Muslim supporter of El-Sayed’s said the moment was historic for everyone who has been made to feel that they don’t belong in America or have a place in politics.
“If someone with the name of Abdul can make it, that means this next generation can look up and say that they can too,” she told the BBC.
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
