Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed neutralized a question about his views of the Muslim Brotherhood while on the campaign trail in a deep red region of Michigan on Saturday.

A rally in the Republican-dominated city of Caro got derailed when a young man who identified himself as Tommy shouted over the crowd to ask El-Sayed if he would disavow the Muslim Brotherhood, a near-century old Islamist movement whose offshoots include both non-violent political factions and extremist groups like Hamas and al-Qaeda.

“Sure. Yeah, absolutely,” El-Sayed answered. “Why are you asking the question?”

“Because they’re a terrorist group,” Tommy replied.

“But what are you implying? Do you assume that I wouldn’t?” asked El-Sayed, who would be the United States’ first Muslim senator if elected.

“Yes, because I haven’t heard you disavow them yet,” Tommy said.

Taking that as a cue to confront questions over if he has “dual loyalties” to the U.S. and Islam, El-Sayed said, “I’m going to swear to the Constitution of the United States and that Constitution guarantees us all the right to practice whatever faith we want to or no faith at all.”

This is Tommy. Tommy had a question about my allegiances. Listen to the end to hear about his. pic.twitter.com/p09eMtsh0x

Cheers erupted when the Democrat looked back at similar questions President John F. Kennedy received about his faith, recalling how he said he was “not running to be a Catholic president but was running to be president and happened to be Catholic.”

“I’m not running to be a Muslim senator,” El-Sayed declared. “I’m running for the U.S. Senate and happen to be Muslim.”

Calling the Constitution his “guiding light,” he then asked Tommy about the First Amendment’s guarantee to freedom of religion.

“The reality is this: I’m never going to tell you what faith you can or cannot practice. I want to protect your right to practice your faith as you choose as a Christian man,” El-Sayed said. “The only question though is that it seems like you don’t want to protect my right to practice as I choose.”

Asked if he’d disavow any violations of the separation of church and state, Tommy said no, prompting El-Sayed to tell him, “I think it’s you who needs to understand the Constitution, not me.”

Watch the full exchange above.

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