A Democrat now making a strong run for a New Jersey congressional seat pointedly refused to condemn his late mentor—the notorious, terror-plotting "Blind Sheikh"—and claimed the sheikh was just a gentle old man when local media confronted the candidate on Thursday.
Adam Hamawy, now a plastic surgeon in Princeton, dismissed questions about Omar Abdel-Rahman, the so-called Blind Sheikh who played a key role in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, calling Abdel-Rahman "a blind old man" and a "well-known person in the community" who only talked about "innocuous things."
"He was a leader of the community that talks about how to pray, how to wash, how to practice as a normal Muslim. … He wasn't preaching death and destruction all the time," Hamawy said.
When a reporter pressed about how "charismatic" the sheikh must have been to get Hamawy to follow him, the surgeon added, "Not just me, the entire community. He was an old man that was disabled and … people volunteered. It was the entire community."
The sheikh was 54 in 1993.
When another reporter asked about whether Hamawy would condemn the sheikh—or the concept of "jihad"—Hamawy laughed.
"Any extremism [of] any kind is bad," he said, referring to his service as a military doctor. "I'm against all war and all violence."
He refused to specifically condemn the sheikh or Islamic jihad, instead saying, "I condemn all extremism and all violence of any kind."
At one point a Hamawy handler tried to shut down the terrorism talk—but the surgeon was in a chatty mood.
"As a Muslim they're always going to find something to attack," Hamawy said. "I'm used to this all my life."
Video of the encounter was posted to YouTube by Insider NJ.
Hamawy's comments about Abdel-Rahman today fly in the face of his own testimony that he offered on the sheikh's behalf during a sensational 1995 trial, when Abdel-Rahman was accused of plotting the World Trade Center bombing.
Under questioning from prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald (who is now representing James Comey), Hamawy testified that Abdel-Rahman "always talked about" jihad.
Fitzgerald: "Did you hear defendant Abdel-Rahman prior to the arrest talk with about how America is the enemy of Islam?"
Hamawy: "Yes."
Fitzgerald: "And you heard prior to the arrest about how Israel is the enemy of Islam, correct?"
Hamawy: "Yes."
Fitzgerald: "Did you hear about how Muslims had to do jihad against the enemies of Islam before the arrests in June 1993?"
Hamawy: "Of course. That's what he always talked about. He talked about jihad, you know."
In the early 1990s, Hamawy was a loyal follower of the sheikh, even after Abdel-Rahman emerged as a prime suspect in the bombing. "If you need anything, you can just give me a call," Hamawy told Abdel-Rahman in 1993, just months after the World Trace Center bombing, which left six dead, trial transcripts show.
During the trial, Hamawy said he was interviewed by the FBI in 1995—the same year Abdel-Rahman was convicted.
"Mr. Hamawy was more than a casual traveling companion of Abdel Rahman," Michael Mukasey, the judge who oversaw the case, wrote in the Wall Street Journal on Thursday.
The sheikh died of natural causes in a North Carolina federal prison in 2017, where he was serving a life sentence.
Hamawy is widely considered the favorite in the June Democratic primary for the open seat in New Jersey's 12th Congressional District, which leans heavily Democratic. He has raised more than $540,000 so far and has been endorsed by far-left figures such as Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) and Rep. Ilhan Omar (D., Minn.).
In addition to his testimony on behalf of the sheikh, Hamawy is also notable for his work in May 2024 volunteering at a Hamas medical facility in Gaza. Hamas leader Mohammed Sinwar was later killed in a terror command center under the building's emergency room. Hamawy had previously said he did not believe there were any Hamas tunnels under the hospital.
Representatives for Hamawy did not respond to a request for comment from the Washington Free Beacon.
