Democratic candidate Adam Hamawy was declared winner early Wednesday of the primary election to replace Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman in New Jersey’s 12th District.
Hamawy, a plastic and former Army combat surgeon, has faced controversy for a past association with Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman, who was convicted of inciting the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.
The progressive candidate is heavily favored to win the election in November and has received endorsements from lawmakers like New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
Hamawy garnered national attention when he, along with a group of other American doctors, volunteered to go to Gaza in 2024. The group was initially unable to leave Gaza, when Israel closed the Rafah border crossing.
Who is Adam Hamawy?
Born in Egypt around 1970, Hamawy moved to New Jersey with his family as an infant. After completing his undergraduate degree at Rutgers University, Hamawy pursued a career in medicine and a residency in plastic surgery.
While completing his residency at the New York-Presbyterian Hospital, Hamawy treated victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
He later joined the New Jersey National Guard, where he served for eight years. During his service, he was deployed to Iraq in 2004 and served as a combat support hospital surgeon.
In May 2024, Hamawy joined an international medical mission to Gaza.
Hamawy’s campaign has focused on implementing universal healthcare, abolishing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and defunding military aid to Israel.
Hamawy’s controversial past
Hamawy has been scrutinized for his ties to Islamic spiritual leader Sheikh Abdel-Rahman, known as “The Blind Sheikh,” who died in 2017.
Abdel-Rahman was a blind Egyptian jihadist militant who was convicted of seditious conspiracy in 1995 for his role in inciting the 1993 bombings of the World Trade Center in New York City. Abdel-Rahman is widely regarded as the leader of the terrorist organization Al-Jama’a al-Islamiyya.
In the early 1990s, Hamawy was an associate and translator for Abdel-Rahman. In 1995, he testified in court as a defense witness in Abdel-Rahman’s trial for the World Trade Center bombing.
According to a New York Times report, during the trial, Hamawy was asked about testimony give by the federal government’s star witness, Emad Salem, who testified that “during a road trip to Detroit the sheikh had encouraged him to kill a former president of Egypt, Hosni Mubarak.” Hamawy testified he did not recall hearing Abdel-Rahman say that to Salem.
More recently, a spokesperson for Hamawy has said the candidate “condemns (Abdel-Rahman’s) violent rhetoric and actions, and all violence, hatred and terrorism.”
In 1994, Hamawy interned with the Benevolence International Foundation in Bosnia, alleged to be a front for Al-Qaeda. According to the 9/11 Commission Report, the office was one of Osama bin Laden’s “impressive array of offices (that) covertly provided financial and other support for terrorist activities.”