Abdul El-Sayed won Michigan’s open US Senate seat on November 3, 2026, becoming the first Muslim and the first Egyptian-American elected to the United States Senate. The victory made national headlines on its own. Then Laura Loomer, a far-right activist with nearly 2 million followers on X, posted a short line that drew a sharp response from a TikTok personality. Lauren Milici replied with four words: “INSHALLAH, JIGSAW.” The exchange has since travelled across X, TikTok, and Instagram, pulling in two very different internet worlds: hard-right political commentary and pop-culture horror fandom.
Trigger warning: This article contains references to Islamophobic language and political attacks.
El-Sayed’s Win and What It Means
Abdul El-Sayed, a former Detroit and Wayne County health commissioner, defeated Republican Mike Rogers in a race that drew attention from across the country. With 78 percent of votes counted, El-Sayed led Rogers 51.8 percent to 46.2 percent, a margin of almost 220,000 votes, according to The Washington Times. Other counts put his share slightly higher, at around 51.78 percent against Rogers’s 46.23 percent with 82 percent counted.
The win carries several firsts. El-Sayed is the son of Egyptian immigrants. He is the first Muslim to serve in the US Senate. He is also the first Egyptian-American to hold a Senate seat. He will take over from retiring Democratic Senator Gary Peters.
His campaign focused on Medicare for All, removing outside money from elections, and sharp criticism of US support for Israel. Progressive leaders including Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez campaigned with him. Former President Barack Obama, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and former Vice President Kamala Harris also made stops in Michigan in the final weeks.
In his victory speech in Detroit, El-Sayed told the crowd:
“You took a chance on the unlikeliest of candidates. Thank you. This is all yours.”
He also took direct aim at the attacks on his faith:
“They might have been pointing to my name and my faith, but we all know my name and my faith are not why you can’t afford your gas.”
Who Is Laura Loomer and What Did She Post?
Laura Loomer is a far-right political activist, conspiracy theorist, and internet personality. She was born on May 21, 1993, in Tucson, Arizona. She has described herself as “a proud Islamophobe,” a phrase quoted by The Guardian and CNN. She has nearly 2 million followers on X and hosts a show on Rumble called “Loomer Unleashed.” She has advised Donald Trump on staffing decisions and is a close ally of the president.
After El-Sayed’s win was projected, Loomer posted on X:
“I hope everyone is learning Arabic.”
The line was read by users as a direct attack on El-Sayed’s Arab and Muslim background. It was not her first comment on the subject. On October 18, 2026, she wrote on X:
“A Democrat takeover in November means a Muslim takeover. This is Paris today. I hope people wake up before we are all speaking Arabic.”
Loomer had spent months attacking El-Sayed during the campaign. She called him a “jihadist” and an “antisemite” in posts reviewed by Croatian outlet Index.hr. She also pushed a claim that El-Sayed had pledged support to the Muslim Brotherhood — a claim that The Guardian traced back to her and found to be false.
The TikTok Star Behind ‘INSHALLAH, JIGSAW’
Lauren Milici is a poet, author, and senior TV and film writer at GamesRadar+ and Total Film. Her work has appeared in Looper, The Independent’s Indy100, Nerdist, Fandom, and Fangoria. She is the author of the poetry collection “Sad Sexy Catholic” and the upcoming book “Unlikable Female Protagonist.” On TikTok, she posts under the handle @motelsirens, where she covers film, television, and pop culture. Her TikTok videos have drawn more than 420,000 views on individual posts, according to Instagram cross-posts.
Milici saw Loomer’s post and replied on X with a link to her own account, @motelsiren. Her response was four words:
“INSHALLAH, JIGSAW.”
The reply caught on quickly. Soap Central described it as a response that “caught the eye of her following.” The phrase mixes “inshallah,” the common Arabic expression meaning “God willing,” with “Jigsaw,” the name of the fictional killer from the Saw horror film franchise.
Why ‘Jigsaw’? The Meme Explained
The “Jigsaw” reference is not random. Social media users have compared Loomer’s appearance to the Jigsaw puppet from the Saw movies for years. Streamer Sneako used a Jigsaw meme to reply to Loomer in October 2026 after she accused him of planning “an act of jihad in America.” NewsBreak reported that the Jigsaw comparison is “a recurring joke on social media that mocks Laura Loomer’s facial appearance.” Sneako has referred to Loomer as “the Jigsaw” before.
Milici, whose work covers horror films, knew the reference well. By pairing “inshallah” with “Jigsaw,” she turned Loomer’s own anti-Arab post back on her. The phrase reads as both a joke and a jab: it adopts the Arabic word Loomer was warning people about, and it attaches it to a horror villain that the internet has already linked to Loomer.
Soap Central noted that Loomer’s “learning Arabic” remark “targets El-Sayed’s Arab and Muslim background” and “is Loomer’s view alone.” The outlet added that Milici “didn’t hold back when she came across the post.”
Loomer’s Long History With El-Sayed and the Muslim Brotherhood Claim
The “learning Arabic” post did not come out of nowhere. Loomer has been attacking El-Sayed since 2018, when he first entered politics. At the centre of her claims is a 2012 open letter that El-Sayed signed as a medical student at Columbia University.
The letter was published in Arabic. It urged Egypt’s then-president Mohamed Morsi to protect the country’s democratic gains after the Arab Spring uprising that removed Hosni Mubarak. More than 30 people signed it.
Loomer has said since 2018 that the letter was a public endorsement of the Muslim Brotherhood. The Guardian reviewed the text and found that it does not mention the Muslim Brotherhood at all. Egyptian journalist Hossam el-Hamalawy confirmed to The Guardian that the letter “makes no reference to the Muslim Brotherhood” and simply called on Morsi to pursue the goals of the revolution.
Rogers built his closing argument around Loomer’s claim. He told voters El-Sayed had “pledged his support to the Muslim Brotherhood.” Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. all repeated the allegation in the final stretch of the race. Cruz called El-Sayed a “jihadist leprechaun” at a campaign event outside Detroit, according to The Brief.
A Republican operative posing as an ordinary voter asked El-Sayed at a town hall whether he would “disavow the Muslim Brotherhood.” El-Sayed replied, “Sure, yeah, absolutely,” and compared the fearmongering about his faith to concerns about John F. Kennedy’s Catholicism in 1960. Later reporting identified the questioner as Thomas Teepell, the former operations director for Missouri Republican Senator Josh Hawley.
El-Sayed’s Victory Speech: ‘Inshallah’ to ‘Alhamdulillah’
El-Sayed used the Arabic phrase “inshallah” throughout the campaign whenever the outcome of the race came up. He explained why in his victory speech.
“You might have noticed I say ‘Inshallah’ or ‘God willing’ whenever the outcome of this race is mentioned. Tonight, we can turn that ‘Inshallah’ into ‘Alhamdulillah’ — Praise Be to God.”
The line drew cheers from the Detroit crowd. It also became one of the most shared moments of the night. Al Jazeera later reported that right-wing accounts clipped the word “inshallah” from his speech and presented it as evidence of a “sinister political and religious takeover.” An Al Jazeera investigation mapped 1,966 accounts and more than 2,500 connections in the first 24 hours alone. Right-wing influencer Benny Johnson posted a clip of El-Sayed saying “inshallah” that gathered more than 193,000 views. Loomer described the clip as “disgusting.”
What the Reactions Show
The exchange between Loomer and Milici sits at the crossing point of two very different online spaces. Loomer’s audience is built on political provocation. Milici’s audience is built on film and television commentary. The “INSHALLAH, JIGSAW” reply travelled because it spoke to both.
Soap Central framed Loomer’s post as a “fresh dig” at the senator-elect. The outlet also noted that Loomer commands “more than one million followers on X,” a figure that other sources place closer to 1.9 million to 2 million.
Instagram account CairoScene covered the win and Loomer’s reaction, writing that “Arabs, Muslims and Americans” celebrated the victory while Loomer “warned that everyone in the United States should ‘start learning Arabic.’” The post added that “more are celebrating, poking fun at the fear-mongering.”
The Guardian’s review of the Muslim Brotherhood claim was published on October 29, 2026, five days before the election. It found that “the Republican campaign to defeat Democrat Abdul El-Sayed in the Michigan Senate race by casting him as an Islamic extremist is based on a false claim first made by the conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer eight years ago.”
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El-Sayed’s win was projected early on November 4, 2026. His victory speech took place in Detroit. Loomer’s “learning Arabic” post followed. Milici’s reply followed that.
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