NJ congressional frontrunner dragged into firestorm over ties to ‘Blind Sheikh’ terrorist
🔴 Former Army doctor and congressional candidate Adam Hamawy faces renewed scrutiny over ties to the “Blind Sheikh.”
🔴 He testified as a witness called by the defense for Omar Abdel-Rahman.
🔴 Hamawy campaign points to his military service, Iraq combat tour and Ground Zero response after 9/11.
A former acquaintance of a convicted terrorist is now the leading candidate in the race for an open U.S. House seat.
Adam Hamawy’s New Jersey roots and military record
Dr. Adam Hamawy grew up in Old Bridge. The son of Egyptian immigrants, he graduated from Rutgers Medical School. Hamawy joined the New Jersey Army National Guard and treated Sept. 11, 2001, terror attack victims at Ground Zero. He served as a trauma surgeon in Iraq and rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel. Now, he has a family and his own practice in New Jersey as a reconstructive surgeon.
He's one of 13 Democrats vying for the 12th Congressional District seat, which includes parts of Mercer, Middlesex, Somerset, and Union counties. U.S. Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman will soon vacate the seat, which the 80-year-old has held for six terms.
But casting a shadow over Hamawy before the June 2 primaries is his questionable past relationship with Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman — known infamously as the Blind Sheikh to many in the United States.
"These bad-faith, guilt-by-association attacks on Muslim and Arab candidates are nothing new in our politics. Dr. Hamawy is running for office because too many New Jerseyans are struggling while the wealthiest get richer, and that’s exactly what he’ll stay focused on in this race," said a spokesperson for Hamawy's campaign.
Who was the ‘Blind Sheikh’ tied to the 1993 World Trade Center bombing?
Blind since infancy from diabetes, Abdel-Rahman was the leader of one of Egypt’s most feared militant groups, the Gamaa Islamiya, or the “Islamic Group,” which at its height led a campaign of violence aimed at toppling that country’s onetime president, Hosni Mubarak. Abdel-Rahman was later convicted of plotting to assassinate Mubarak, along with a series of other terror attacks.
Abdel-Rahman fled Egypt to the U.S. in 1990 and began teaching in a New Jersey mosque. A circle of his followers was convicted in the Feb. 26, 1993, truck bombing of New York’s World Trade Center that killed six people — eight years before al-Qaida’s suicide plane hijackers brought the towers down.
Later in 1993, Abdel-Rahman was charged and later convicted as the leader of a group that conspired to bomb the United Nations and other New York landmarks, including the George Washington Bridge and the Lincoln and Holland tunnels.
Those attacks were never carried out, but U.S. District Judge Michael Mukasey told the defendants at sentencing that if the plot hadn’t been thwarted, it would have "brought about devastation on a scale that beggars the imagination, certainly on a scale unknown in this country since the Civil War.”
Abdel-Rahman died in 2017 at 78 years old while serving a life sentence in federal prison.
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Old testimony and terror trial thrust back into spotlight
Amid his congressional run, Hamawy's association with the Blind Sheikh has resurfaced.
On Monday, the Washington Free Beacon published a story about Hamawy's testimony in Abdel-Rahman's July 1995 trial when the sheikh was charged with plotting to kill the Egyptian president. It cited a story in the New York Times archive, which described Hamawy as one of the sheikh's "supporters."
And on Thursday, the judge in Abdel-Rahman's trial published an Op-Ed in the Wall Street Journal. Mukasey, who later served as U.S. attorney general, said that Hamawy was more than just a companion; he attended several of the Blind Sheikh's sermons, visited him in his home before trial, and helped with translations.
On the witness stand in 1995, the 26-year-old Hamawy said he first met the Blind Sheikh in 1991 at Matawan Middle School. Abdel-Rahman, who lived in Jersey City at the time, was brought in as a speaker for a Saturday night community event. In his sermons, Abdel-Rahman spoke about "Islam in general." The two did not have contact after Abdel-Rahman's arrest.
The full statement from Hamawy's campaign
"Dr. Adam Hamawy’s entire career and life have been defined by his patriotism and deep love of this country. He served in the military for over twenty years with distinction as a Lt. Colonel, including a tour in combat, during which he saved the lives of U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth and hundreds of other American troops in Iraq. In 2001, he treated victims of the 9/11 terror attacks at Ground Zero.
"He was in the military at the time the events litigated in the trial took place, during the trial, and after the trial. In the years that followed, Dr. Hamawy was chosen for one of the most sensitive and highest-trust roles for an Army doctor: deployment to treat critically injured troops in Iraq. His sacrifices for our freedom accurately reflect his character and values then and now. As a witness, he performed his civic and legal duty to testify truthfully under oath and contribute to the system of laws and justice he defended while serving our country in the Army.
"These bad-faith, guilt-by-association attacks on Muslim and Arab candidates are nothing new in our politics. Dr. Hamawy is running for office because too many New Jerseyans are struggling while the wealthiest get richer, and that’s exactly what he’ll stay focused on in this race."
(Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission)
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