A New Jersey plastic surgeon with a documented association with the convicted terrorist cleric known as the “Blind Sheikh” won a crowded Democratic congressional primary Tuesday night, positioning himself to become the first Muslim member of Congress from New Jersey. The victory landed at the same time as the national Democratic party is preparing to rally behind a Maine Senate candidate who spent nearly two decades with a Nazi SS-linked tattoo on his chest.
Dr. Adam Hamawy won the Democratic primary for New Jersey’s 12th Congressional District, defeating a field of roughly a dozen candidates seeking to succeed retiring Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman. The Associated Press declared Hamawy the winner at 9:36 p.m., with Hamawy leading the field with 27.4% of the vote.
The 12th District includes Princeton and parts of Mercer, Middlesex, Somerset, and Union counties. Because the district has long favored Democrats, Hamawy enters the general election as the heavy favorite to succeed Watson Coleman. He will face Republican Greg Mele in November.
The victory came despite mounting scrutiny over Hamawy’s past ties to Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman. Abdel Rahman, the infamous “Blind Sheikh,” was convicted of inciting the 1993 World Trade Center bombing that killed six people and injured thousands. He was also an influential figure among al-Qaeda terrorists.
Court records show Hamawy was a 26-year-old medical student when Abdel Rahman’s lawyers put him on the stand at trial to deny charges that the sheikh had called for the murder of then-Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak. During his testimony, which Hamawy began with a traditional Islamic greeting directed at Abdel Rahman, he described taking a 13-hour car journey with the cleric and some of his associates to a conference in Detroit called “Towards a Global Islamic Economy.”
In his testimony, Hamawy told prosecutors that he had heard Abdel Rahman speak about how the United States and Israel are “the enemies of Islam,” and confirmed that Abdel Rahman “always talked about” how Muslims had to wage jihad against those enemies.
Hamawy brushed off the connection as minimal and decades-old, saying he was young when he first encountered the cleric in 1991, remembers carpooling with him on one occasion, and testified out of a sense of civic duty. “I was called as a witness, and I gave my testimony under oath, and then I walked out,” he said. “It was never an issue back then, and they’re trying to make it an issue now.” A campaign spokesperson called the attacks “gross and bigoted.”
Scrutiny of Hamawy’s past also extended to a separate revelation that one year before his trial testimony, he traveled to Bosnia with a group that was subsequently shut down for providing logistical support to al-Qaeda. Hamawy did not respond to questions about those activities.
Hamawy was backed by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Sen. Bernie Sanders, and several other progressive “Squad” members, and was boosted by American Priorities, a pro-Palestinian super PAC that spent more than $1.5 million supporting his campaign.
The dual developments present an uncomfortable contrast for Democrats. Republicans this cycle moved to push out Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, whose votes and public statements drew sustained accusations of antisemitism, with the congressman losing his primary last month. Democrats, meanwhile, are headed into the general election with Hamawy as a House candidate in New Jersey and Graham Platner as their presumptive Senate nominee in Maine — a candidate whom one Democratic congressman has called “personally disqualifying” over a chest tattoo widely recognized as a Nazi symbol.
Platner, a 41-year-old oyster farmer and military veteran, claims he was unaware that the skull tattoo on his chest resembled the Totenkopf insignia used by Hitler’s SS units, and has since covered it with another tattoo. His campaign has also faced scrutiny over reports of salacious allegations. Despite the controversies, Platner holds a commanding lead heading into the June 9 Democratic primary, after Maine Gov. Janet Mills suspended her campaign in April.
(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)
