Colin Jost faces criticism after Saturday Night Live joke about Abdul El Sayed

Saturday Night Live viewers reacted with anger after cast member Colin Jost made a joke about Michigan Senator-elect Abdul El-Sayed that some audience members viewed as Islamophobic. The Daily Mail reported that the joke occurred during the show's Weekend Update segment, which concentrated on Democratic political victories in the recent midterm elections. Jost began by noting that El-Sayed made history as the first Muslim elected to the United States Senate before being interrupted by crowd applause. [1]

Al Jazeera and msnbc.com both report that El-Sayed was elected to the United States Senate last week, becoming the first Muslim to win a seat in the chamber. The Guardian reported that El-Sayed is an Oxford scholar, while Al Jazeera noted that he recently appeared on Pod Save America to criticize Donald Trump's trade tariffs on Canadian imports. [2][3][4]

Colin Kelly Jost has worked as a writer for Saturday Night Live since 2005 and has served as a co-anchor on Weekend Update since 2014. Abdulrahman Mohamed El-Sayed is an epidemiologist and politician who won the Senate race in Michigan. Former President Barack Obama, who was the first African American to serve as United States president, previously campaigned alongside El-Sayed in Detroit, as FTMQ News reported earlier. [5][6][7][8][9]

Following his election victory, El-Sayed warned that American consumers would face higher prices on Canadian goods due to international trade tariffs, Al Jazeera reported. [3]