WASHINGTON — New Jersey Rep.-elect Adam Hamawy repeatedly refused to describe Iran as an “adversary,” faulting the Trump administration for pushing the Islamic Republic into war.
Hamawy (D-NJ), a former combat surgeon who faced scrutiny over his past interactions with radical Islamic figures decades ago, called for the conflict in Iran to end.
“We push[ed] them into a fight. And so I think we both have to step back and say, ‘Is this helping either one of us?’” Hamawy replied to CNN when asked if Tehran is an adversary.
Pressed again, he replied, “We’re making adversaries when we should be making friends.”
CNN anchor Pamela Brown brought up how Iranians have been chanting “Death to America” and killing Americans for decades. But Hamawy was unmoved by those facts.
“We’ve been saying death to Iran for decades as well,” he shot back. “And so what we need to do is use diplomacy.”
“We’ve killed a lot of them as well.”
Hamawy easily won his race last week to succeed retiring Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-NJ), becoming the first Muslim from New Jersey elected to Congress.
The Garden State Democrat also accused Israel of pushing the US into war with Iran when asked whether the Jewish state is an American ally.
His responses to those questions were eerily reminiscent of Sen.-elect Abdul El-Sayed’s (D-Mich.) refusal to say whether Israel or Iran was more of a threat to the US during a debate last month against Republican Mike Rogers.
During his campaign, Hamawy raised eyebrows over his past affiliations with people and organizations tied to radicalism.
In 1994, the trained plastic surgeon had interned for the Benevolence International Foundation in Bosnia, a since-defunct entity the 9/11 Commission Report described as an “impressive array of offices [that] covertly provided financial and other support for terrorist activities.”
Authorities later found letters from al-Qaeda leaders, weapons, a photo of bin Laden, documents about al-Qaeda operations, and more during a raid on its offices, which were believed to have been used by the terror group to set a “base for operations in Europe.”
Hamawy was never implicated in any wrongdoing with the Benevolence International Foundation, but the timing raised eyebrows. Additionally, his campaign underscored his time working as a combat surgeon for the US military.
The new rep also had ties to late jihadist Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman, also known as “The Blind Sheik,” who died in 2017.
“The Blind Sheik” was convicted in the mid-1990s on terrorism charges for allegedly pushing a “war of urban terrorism” against the US. That conviction took place during a crackdown after the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.
The two met in the early 1990s and later embarked on a road trip to Detroit, where Abdel-Rahman allegedly mused about “conquering the land of the infidels,” per a court transcript.
Hamawy testified in defense of “The Blind Sheik” during the trial and claimed that those remarks were taken out of context.
More recently, Hamawy volunteered at a hospital in the beleaguered Gaza Strip in 2024, where the Israelis later discovered a tunnel network that led to a Hamas leader.
