Adam Hamawy, a New Jersey plastic surgeon and one of the top fundraisers in the Democratic primary, had a yearslong relationship with terrorist figure Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman, known as the Blind Sheikh, according to court records, the Washington Free Beacon reports. The candidate, who is running for New Jersey’s 12th Congressional District, later testified as a defense witness in the case that resulted in Abdel-Rahman’s life imprisonment.
Hamawy first met Abdel-Rahman in 1991, when the Islamist cleric spoke at a middle school in Cliffwood, N.J., and he later said he attended the sheikh’s events, visited him at home, and helped translate for him. At trial, Hamawy told prosecutors he rode with Abdel-Rahman and some of his “associates” on a 13-hour trip to a Detroit conference called “Towards a Global Islamic Economy,” where the cleric spoke as a featured guest.
According to the Free Beacon, “those associates were Sheikh Abdel Khalid ‘from the Salam Mosque’ in Jersey City, referred to in the court records as a ‘jihad office.’ That mosque, where Abdel-Rahman preached, was the location where the conspirators behind the World Trade Center bombing would meet.”
While Hamawy denied hearing Abdel-Rahman call for the murder of then-Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, he acknowledged that the gathering was not really about commerce. When asked whether the sheikh spoke about “conquering the land of the infidels,” Hamawy said, “He might have, yes,” and added that he heard the word “jihad” repeatedly that weekend.
The Detroit event brought together several figures tied to Islamist extremism, including Dr. Ahmad Nofal, described in reporting as a Hamas recruiter and Holocaust denier, and Hassan al-Turabi, a longtime associate of Osama bin Laden. Hamawy also said Abdel-Rahman described the United States and Israel as enemies of Islam.
Hamawy is one of 13 candidates in the race to replace retiring Representative Bonnie Watson Coleman and currently has a sizable fundraising edge over his rivals, with more than $540,000 raised. His campaign has also received support from Representative Ilhan Omar, along with backing from anti-Israel groups such as American Priorities, Track AIPAC, and CAIR Action.
The candidate has drawn fresh attention for another controversy: his work at a Gaza hospital that later became associated with Hamas’s command structure and tunnel system. According to recent reporting, Hamawy downplayed claims that Hamas operated beneath the facility, even though a Hamas leader was later killed in a tunnel under the hospital’s emergency room.
Abdel-Rahman was eventually convicted of seditious conspiracy and multiple terrorism-related offenses tied to plots against Mubarak and targets in New York, including the World Trade Center bombing network. Prosecutors said his followers went on to commit or inspire a series of deadly attacks, including the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and the 1997 Luxor massacre.