In 1993, the World Trade Center was bombed. Now, over three decades later, Democrats have picked someone who helped give cover to the planners for Congress. New Jersey Democrats nominated Army veteran and plastic surgeon Adam Hamawy for Congress on Tuesday, elevating a progressive candidate whose past associations with the convicted terrorist Omar Abdel-Rahman and an organization later linked to al-Qaeda have drawn renewed scrutiny.
Hamawy won the Democratic primary in New Jersey’s heavily Democratic 12th Congressional District, defeating 12 other candidates seeking to replace retiring Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman. He will face Republican Greg Mele in November and enters the general election as the strong favorite.
The physician has built his campaign around his military and humanitarian record. Hamawy treated victims at Ground Zero after the Sept. 11 attacks, served as a combat surgeon in Iraq, and helped save the life of Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., after the helicopter she was piloting was struck by a rocket-propelled grenade in 2004. He has also participated in medical missions in Gaza.
But Hamawy’s victory has placed a new spotlight on relationships dating to the early 1990s.
As a young man, Hamawy associated with Abdel-Rahman, the Egyptian cleric known as the “Blind Sheikh.” Abdel-Rahman was later sentenced to life in prison after being convicted of seditious conspiracy in a case involving plans to bomb landmarks in New York City.
Hamawy traveled with the cleric to a conference in Detroit, translated for him at a press conference, and testified as a defense witness at his 1995 trial. Hamawy has described his testimony as a matter of civic responsibility and rejected criticism of his past as an attempt to impose guilt by association.
The nominee has also faced questions about his volunteer work in Bosnia with the Benevolence International Foundation. The organization presented itself as a humanitarian charity but was later shut down after authorities linked its operations to al-Qaeda and Osama bin Laden’s international support network. Hamawy has not been accused of wrongdoing or of knowingly assisting a terrorist organization.
The controversy intensified after conservative commentator wrote on Twitter: “Democrats just nominated a guy who served as a defense witness for the World Trade Center bomber and who worked for an Al Qaeda front group. You know how we say Europe’s problems with Islamism are going to happen here? Well, they are happening.”
Democrats just nominated a guy who served as a defense witness for the World Trade Center bomber and who worked for an Al Qaeda front group.
You know how we say Europe’s problems with Islamism are going to happen here?
Well, they are happening. https://t.co/qGEqHQ5OWK
— Bonchie (@bonchieredstate) June 3, 2026
Some liberal commentators seemed as unsettled:
I mean, this is a pretty serious association, isn't it? The man was convicted of inspiring the first World Trade Center attack & Hamawy was close enough to him to be a defense witness. 20 years ago me can't fathom that he won in New Jersey.
— Brian Rosenwald (@brianros1) June 3, 2026
Hamawy’s almost certain to win a. seat in Congress. The Democratic nominee is heavily favored to win.
