Man who volunteered for al-Qaeda in 1990s wins primary race for congressional seat in New Jersey

Hasan Piker, left, and Adam Hamawy during a live-streamed interview.

Voters in New Jersey advanced a foreign-born candidate who once volunteered for an al-Qaeda-linked group to the November general election in the race to succeed a retiring congresswoman. 

Adam Hamawy cruised to victory on Tuesday night in New Jersey's 12th district, where U.S. Representative Bonnie Watson will be retiring at the end of her sixth term. Hamawy is a complicated political figure. He was born in Egypt and brought to the U.S. by his parents as a baby. They settled in central New Jersey.

In the 1990s, he worked as a volunteer in Bosnia for a group called the Benevolence International Foundation, which turned out to be a front for al-Qaeda, according to The New York Post. The group surreptitiously provided financial and logistical support to the Osama bin Laden-founded terror group.

He also had a relationship with Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman, better known as "the Blind Sheikh," who was convicted for his role in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. He was called as a trial witness by the Blind Sheik's lawyers to dispute accusations that he had called on his followers to assassinate Hosni Mubarak, the president of Egypt at the time. 

Hamawy went on to graduate from medical school and become a plastic surgeon who served in the Iraq War. U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth has credited him with saving her life with the medical treatment she received from him in Iraq after her helicopter went down in battle. 

But his rhetoric during his campaign for Congress has raised eyebrows along with his complicated background. One of his core political platforms is to "abolish ICE." He's been endorsed by the likes of AOC, Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib, Ro Khanna, Bernie Sanders, and other far-left lawmakers, politicians and Hollywood types, such as actor Mark Ruffalo.

And in the week prior to Election Day, Hamway sat down for an interview with Hasan Piker, the far-left extremist who has stoked outrage in recent months with incendiary remarks about everything from Israel to Luigi Mangione to socialism to political violence. 

In the November general election, Hamaway will face Gregg Mele, who ran unopposed for for the Republican nomination, according to CNN.