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A man whose life has been deeply impacted by radical Islamic terrorism is incensed as people he claims hold extreme beliefs are winning Democratic Party elections at alarming rates.
“When it comes to terrorist sympathizers, I don’t really suffer fools kindly, and this guy is beyond the pale,” Don Arias said of Dr. Adam Hamawy, now the Democratic nominee for Congress in New Jersey’s blue-leaning 12th Congressional District.
Arias is an Air Force veteran and former New York firefighter who witnessed the grave destruction of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. His brother, who worked on the 84th floor of the South Tower, died in the subsequent 9/11 terrorist attacks that changed the trajectory of American history.
Arias spoke to his brother, Adam, the morning of the attack after the first plane had already struck the North Tower. Adam described to him the chaos, as desperate victims jumped from the burning skyscraper that once anchored the city’s skyline.
Don Arias, a former firefighter and Air Force veteran who is now an advocate for families of 9/11 victims, in his dress blue uniform. (Courtesy: Don Arias)
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“So, that has stuck with me for many years,” he told Digital. Arias has since gone on to advocate for the families of victims of 9/11.
Hamawy is a veteran combat plastic surgeon who now operates his own private practice in New Jersey. He won a crowded Democratic primary to replace outgoing Rep. Bonnie Watson-Coleman, D-N.J., on June 2.
He emerged victorious despite heavy baggage, including ties to radical Islamic terrorism.
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In his past, Hamawy cozied up to infamous terrorist Omar Abdel-Rahman, better known as the “Blind Sheikh,” the mastermind of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing who died in federal prison in 2017.
Dr. Adam Hamawy speaks during an interview in Washington, D.C., on June 14, 2024, after meetings at the White House and on Capitol Hill. He recently returned to the U.S. after volunteering in Gaza. (Drew Angerer/AFP)
The pair met in 1991, when Hamawy was a young adult, and soon thereafter Hamawy began accompanying Abdel-Rahman to mosques. In the same year, Hamawy, the sheikh and others took a 13-hour car ride from Abdel-Rahman’s home in New Jersey to a conference in Detroit called “Towards a Global Islamic Economy.”
The congressional hopeful testified on behalf of the defense in the sheikh’s trial.
While Arias said it’s possible that Hamawy has some positive credentials — he is a doctor and a veteran — he doesn’t trust the candidate at all.
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“But when he’s pals with the Blind Sheikh, and he’s his translator for several years, when he testifies for him in court saying what a great guy is, when he spends that kind of time with this guy, and then says that he’s never heard him say anything about jihad, I have to question his veracity. I mean, that just doesn’t ring true,” Arias told Fox New Digital.
Don Arias, second from left, poses for a photo with fellow NYFD firefighters. (Courtesy: Don Arias)
“Show me who your friends are, and I’ll tell you who you are,” he continued. “And if this guy Hamawy is going to try and forget all about that — he wants it to go down the memory hole and say, ‘oh, I was a veteran, you know, I did good stuff’ — I’m not going to forget, and I don’t think people should forget.“
In 1994, Hamawy also went on what he describes as a humanitarian mission to Bosnia. There, he worked with the Benevolence International Foundation (BIF). In a post-9/11 terrorism crackdown, BIF was designated as a financier of terrorism by the U.S. government over its ties to al Qaeda.
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“We’re not educating the voters, and the voters aren’t doing the proper research into their candidates, because I think if they knew that this guy, if it was top of mind awareness that this guy had these kinds of connections… they wouldn’t vote for him, and I think people need to bring that to the forefront.”
Plastic surgeon-turned-House candidate Adam Hisham Hamawy is interviewed in New York on April 24, 2024 about his intention to go on a humanitarian mission to Hamas-led Gaza. ((Photo by Islam Dogru/Anadolu via Getty Images))
Additionally, a socialist candidate who once suggested that the United States deserved 9/11 is likely to win a seat in the New York State Senate.
Aber Kawas is the Muslim daughter of illegal aliens who is now the Democratic nominee for the New York State Senate District 12. She was backed by New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, and won as part of a far-left sweep of several federal and state Democratic primaries in the city last Tuesday.
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“The system of capitalism and racism and White supremacy… and Islamophobia have all been used to colonize lands, to take resources from other people and so this is a long trajectory, and we’re just seeing the manifestations of that continuation with 9/11,” she said in a 2017 episode of the Asian American Writers’ Association podcast titled “Islamophobia beyond 9/11 with Aber Kawas.”
“The idea we have to apologize for a terror attack that a couple of people did and then there is no apology or reparations for genocides and for slavery… is something I find reprehensible,” she said.
Aber Kawas, Youth Activities Director for the Arab-American Association of New York, speaks at a rally in Columbus Circle protesting proposals to restrict Muslim arrivals to the United States. (Andy Katz/Corbis)
Arias condemned those comments, too.
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“For her to minimize 9/11 … it’s just like, ‘oh, some people had some planes,’ you know, it’s beyond the pale,” he told Digital by phone. “So, when I look at somebody like Kawas, when I look at somebody like Mamdani, I don’t see an American. I mean, you scratch the surface, you see a commie, you see a radical, and — forgive me for saying it — I see a Nazi.”
He then blasted the American education system, which he views as a pipeline to far-left activism instead of actual learning. According to Arias, voters for candidates like Hamawy and Kawas are groomed in schools and in higher education to hold radical beliefs.
“It’s very insidious and it’s very seductive to the young and dumb,” he said. “It’s the young, it’s the dumb, it’s the indoctrinated who are voting for these people in numbers.”
“I don’t know what happens to a person where they actually grow to hate their own country, but I blame universities and the schools for this,” Arias continued. It’s an indictment on our education system because almost… they’re all very young, very ill informed and they’re Islamo-Nazis at this point.”
Don Arias speaks at an event as part of his work as an advocate for 9/11 families on September 11, 2025. (Courtesy: Don Arias)
He added that for people like Kawas, Zionism, Judaism and Israel have been conflated with “white supremacy,” and in their minds, the alleged “white supremacy” has to be “put down.”
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He also described socialism as a “luxury belief,” and its supporters as mostly young, wealthy or upper-middle-class people.
“These guys are cruising, so they can have these luxury beliefs, these ethereal conversations about mankind. They’re so out of touch.”
Hamawy’s campaign did not return Digital’s request for comment. And Kawas declined to answer questions, instead pointing to her X account.
