El-Sayed's Racist Claim That Arab Mothers at Less Risk Without ‘Interethnic Mating’

U.S. Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed, a Michigan Democrat, unlicensed doctor, and Egyptian citizen, conducted and published research in 2010 arguing that Arab women were at less risk for preterm birth if they married only Arab men instead of “interethnic mating.” Which is a pretty weird topic to research and write about — if not outright racist.

I recently delved into the centuries-old history of anti-black racism, including an extensive black slave trade that continues through the present, in the Arab, North African, and Turkish Muslim world. It is still true that many Muslims in Asian and North African countries, and Muslims who have moved to Western nations from North Africa or Asia, are racist against black people. The anti-black rants from El-Sayed’s campaign surrogate Hasan Piker did not come out of nowhere; they expressed a typical Muslim viewpoint. And it seems El-Sayed shares Piker’s racism, but even more extensively, against anyone who is not Arab. 

Technically speaking, investigating whether certain ethnicities are more at risk for certain medical problems is purely scientific, but the language that Abdulrahman Mohamed El-Sayed of Columbia University and his research partner Sandro Galea used in the abstract below is very odd, to say the least, especially in the concluding sentence:

Arab ethnicity (AE) mothers have lower preterm birth (PTB) risk than white mothers. Little is known about the determinants of PTB among AE women or the role of interethnic mating in shaping PTB risk among this group. We assessed the relationship between interethnic mating and risk for PTB, very PTB, and late PTB among AE mothers. Data was collected for all births (N = 21,621) to AE women in Michigan between 2000 and 2005. Self-reported ancestry was used to determine paternal AE as well as to identify AE mothers. We used bivariate chi-square tests and multivariable logistic regression to assess the relationship between paternal non-AE and risk for PTB, very PTB, and late PTB among AE mothers. All analyses were also conducted among non-Arab white mothers as a control. Among AE mothers, paternal non-Arab ethnicity was associated with higher risk of PTB (OR = 1.18, 95% CI = 1.06, 1.30) and late PTB (OR = 1.24, 95% CI = 1.20, 1.38) compared to paternal Arab ethnicity. Paternal non-Arab ethnicity was not associated with risk for any outcome among non-Arab white mothers. Future studies could assess the causal mechanisms underlying the association between interethnic mating and risk for PTB.

Is it just me, or does this read somewhat like an argument that Arab women need to keep their bloodlines pure by only "mating" with Arab men instead of with inferior white or black Westerners? Arabs are an ethnic majority in Egypt, where El-Sayed’s Muslim Brotherhood family comes from, and Egyptians are traditionally racist against black people and sometimes against white people. 

Related: Hasan Piker’s Anti-Black Racism Recalls a Long-Ignored History of Anti-Blackness in the Muslim World

Who in America would actually argue for further studies into the risks of “interethnic mating”? Dual citizens who still have the pernicious mindset of their Muslim relatives overseas, apparently. 

Racist Muslim Hasan Piker said “I don't give a f*ck what Black people care about. Let's go back to a better time, when lynchings were happening” What’s your reaction to this ?? https://t.co/FzaCXi8Xjz

— Val (@TrumpsHurricane) August 12, 2026

By the way, El-Sayed’s research appeared in the Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health. In my opinion, we should focus on the health of humans as individuals, not separate them into different political or racial groups and then act as if each group is in medical isolation from the others. It’s a very un-American perspective, but one that matches the fundamentalist Muslim mindset all too well.

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