ASRA NOMANI: El-Sayed glides into role as rock star of the hard left's red-green alliance
CHANTILLY, Va. — Three days after Abdul El-Sayed won a historic election as America's first Muslim senator, a driver navigating a black luxury GMC Yukon Denali SUV pulled into a...
By Fox News · Fox News
CHANTILLY, Va. — Three days after Abdul El-Sayed won a historic election as America's first Muslim senator, a driver navigating a black luxury GMC Yukon Denali SUV pulled into a parking space beside a side security entrance of an upscale Marriott conference center here in this suburb of Washington, D.C., at 7:39 p.m. on Friday. A man jumped out of the front passenger seat and opened the rear door, from which El-Sayed emerged for an appearance at the Arab America Foundation's "CONNECT Empowerment Summit," hosted by the 501(c)(3) nonprofit whose leaders had supported his election. As the man extended an arm to shield El-Sayed, the senator-elect dipped out of the SUV, slipping on a jacket as he climbed the steps toward the entrance. The Democratic Party's newly minted rock star had arrived, in more ways than one. ABDUL EL-SAYED DELIVERS MAJOR BLOW TO GOP IN MICHIGAN AFTER BRUISING SENATE RACE The ensuing 45 minutes offered a window into some of the activists, organizations, political rhetoric and cultural forces surrounding the El-Sayed's dramatic rise, buoyed by an increasingly powerful coalition that includes many disaffected Democrats, but also outright Islamists and communists in an unlikely alliance. Inside, Medea Benjamin, co-founder of CodePink, a far-left nonprofit, paced in the hallway in a fuchsia tunic over leggings and white boots. CodePink is a pro-communist, pro-China nonprofit funded by Neville Roy Singham , an American-born, Shanghai-based tycoon whose financing of left-wing nonprofits has drawn congressional and prosecutorial scrutiny. CodePink's other co-founder, Jodie Evans, is married to Singham. Nearby, Benjamin's husband and fellow CodePink activist, Tighe Barry, wore a traditional Chinese jacket under a khaki Mao-style cap emblazoned with a five-point star associated with communist iconography. He carried a backpack patterned with a keffiyeh pattern and watermelons, symbols adopted by pro-Palestinian activists. Benjamin and Barry weren…