“The silence from Democrats when Muslim colleagues and candidates are attacked is a cancerous rot.”
Reps. Summer Lee (D-Pa.), Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), and then-Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.) attend the State of the Union address in Washington, DC on March 7, 2024.
(Photo: screenshot/Fox News)
Julia Conley
Jun 05, 202
COMMON DREAMS
Congresswoman Summer Lee spoke at length Thursday evening about recent anti-Muslim attacks that have been launched by Republicans as well as the corporate media against two progressive political leaders—reserving much of her condemnation for Democratic lawmakers who have remained silent as Rep. Rashida Tlaib and US House candidate Adam Hamawy have been both directly and indirectly accused of “terrorism” in recent days.
“Democrats, we are way too quiet right now,” said Lee (D-Pa.) in a three-minute video she posted on her official social media accounts. “This is a moral rot that we are dealing with, and I hope that we will not stand by and let this particular hatred grow and grow until it’s out of our control.”
Lee spoke up a day after Rep. Max Miller (R-Ohio) openly accused Tlaib, the only Palestinian-American member of Congress, of advocating “for terrorists on a daily basis” during a debate on a proposal she introduced to block US forces from taking part in Israel’s invasion of Lebanon—a war powers resolution that ultimately failed to pass Thursday after House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) and more than 100 other Democrats joined the GOP in opposing it.
More than 3,500 Lebanese people have been killed and 1.2 million have been forcibly displaced since Israel began attacking Lebanon in March, in what it says is an effort to defeat Hezbollah. Israeli officials have said they are using the Israel Defense Forces’ (IDF) decimation of Gaza as a “model” in Lebanon.
While Tlaib advocated on the House floor for Lebanese civilians, Miller characterized Hezbollah as “butchers that you like to hang out with to a certain extent,” addressing the progressive congresswoman—prompting her to demand that Miller’s comments be stricken from the record and accusing him of a “direct attack on my character.”
Rep. Brian Mast (R-Fla.), who volunteered to serve in the IDF in 2015, also said supporters of Tlaib’s resolution were acting as “proxies for Hezbollah.”
In her statement Thursday, Lee said, “Yesterday on the House floor, two different Republicans basically called my sister Rashida a terrorist for nothing more than being there, being Palestinian, being Muslim, being a woman.”
She emphasized that the attacks on Tlaib followed similar remarks about congressional candidate Dr. Adam Hamawy, a retired US Army surgeon who volunteered to treat victims of Israel’s assault on Gaza and saved the life of Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) after her helicopter was shot down in Iraq in 2004.
Before voters in New Jersey’s 12th Congressional District went to the polls this week to vote in the primary the progressive Democrat won, opponents attacked him for his former association with Omar Abdel-Rahman, a cleric who was convicted of terrorism in 1995 and whom Hamawy said he met through the Egyptian-American community in New Jersey.
Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-Fla.) said Hamawy was “not in line with our values,” and The New York Times focused its subheadline on Abdel-Rahman in its report on Hamawy’s primary victory, before editing the subhead.
“The anti-Muslim rhetoric is picking up,” said Lee on Thursday. “And we don’t often talk about how dangerous that is, and we also don’t talk about how dangerous it is to our coalition. As the Democratic Party, we are supposed to be the ones that are the standard-setters, the ones who are fighting for justice and equal opportunity and liberation, and if we aren’t able to speak up against this right now, then how can we continue to hold that particular mantle?”
“It’s not just Republicans who are dealing in this,” she added. “I’ve heard Democrats use and deal in some of the worst tropes and stereotypes of my Muslim colleagues.”
Lee was applauded for speaking out about attacks that Democratic leaders had not directly addressed—and that Jeffries was accused of amplifying recently when he said he planned to speak to Hamawy about “his past affiliations.”
“Incredibly brave stuff for Summer to explicitly name and condemn Democratic Islamophobia and do so on broad terms,” said organizer and writer Cole Sandick. “I hope more elected progressives follow her lead.”
Lee emphasized that “no marginalized person should have to deal with the abuse that they are dealing with daily from the White House on down, by themselves.”
“So I just really hope that we can be as clear about anti-Muslim hate as we are about all the other forms of hatred that we’re fighting back right now,” she added, “and recognize that our liberation is tied together.”
Lee emphasized that “no marginalized person should have to deal with the abuse that they are dealing with daily from the White House on down, by themselves.”
“So I just really hope that we can be as clear about anti-Muslim hate as we are about all the other forms of hatred that we’re fighting back right now,” she added, “and recognize that our liberation is tied together.”
Adam Hamawy, Doctor Who Served in Gaza During Genocide, Wins New Jersey Primary
Hamawy called for “health care, not bombs; to abolish ICE; and to unrig this economy.”
Hamawy called for “health care, not bombs; to abolish ICE; and to unrig this economy.”
June 5, 2026
Nurse Monica Johnston (L) listens as Adam Hamawy speaks during an interview before a meeting at the White House in Washington DC, on June 14, 2024.Drew Angerer / AFP
Adam Hamawy, a doctor who served in Gaza amid the genocide, won a New Jersey congressional primary on Tuesday, demonstrating the continued impact of the Palestine solidarity movement on U.S. politics.
Egyptian-born Hamawy beat 11 other Democrats and will be the Democratic candidate on the ballot for New Jersey’s 12th Congressional District. The winner of the Democratic primary is expected to easily win a seat in Congress in November.
Hamawy’s campaign focused on ending U.S. aggression in the Middle East and a call to abolish ICE.
“You’ve heard throughout this race that I said over and over again: health care, not bombs; to abolish ICE; and to unrig this economy,” he told supporters on Tuesday night — echoing the calls of the Palestine solidarity movement and immigrant justice advocates. Hamawy also supports ending U.S. military aid to Israel.
“They are solutions to a crisis that was born out of a broken and rigged political and economic system – a system that floods money overseas to bomb children’s schools, while at the same time says that child care here in America is pie in the sky,” he explained.
Hamawy worked as an army combat doctor during the Iraq War in 2004 and 2005. He has also participated in numerous medical missions: to Bosnia, Sudan, Haiti, Lebanon, Syria, and Gaza.
Hamawy participated in medical missions to Gaza in 2024 and 2025, which he credits as part of the reason he ran for office.
In an interview with Mondoweiss, Hamawy said, “over the last two years, I’ve been to Gaza twice and the West Bank. What I witnessed there really compelled me to get more involved. I’ve seen war before; I’ve been to Iraq. I know the horrors of war, but what I witnessed was a genocide. I saw more children and civilians blown up than ever in my life. It was so horrible that when I came back, I felt it was my obligation to go to Congress and speak about what I had seen. These are American bombs that are being dropped. These are our taxpayer dollars that are being used.”
After the medical mission, “I felt I had to go to Washington to fix this myself,” he told Al Jazeera.
The medical mission – organized by the World Health Organization and the Palestinian American Medical Association – was temporarily blocked by Israel from exiting Gaza. When other foreign medical workers were eventually evacuated from the Strip, Hamawy and two other doctors refused to leave, demanding more medical workers be let into the enclave.
In the days before the primary race, media reports smeared Hamawy as tied to Islamic extremists because of his testimony in a 1995 trial for Omar Abdel-Rahman, a New Jersey-based religious leader who was convicted of inspiring terror attacks. Hamawy has said that he knew Abdel-Rahman through the local Egyptian American community, that he opposes all forms of violence, and that smears against him are simply Islamophobia.
“There once was a time where this might have worked, when racist and anti-Muslim attacks would have turned an election,” he said upon winning the primary. “But tonight we proved that this era of American politics is over.” This was also the case with New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s race in 2025 — while the Islamophobic attacks on him in the period prior to the election would have made his win unlikely in the past, the shift is likely due to the impact of the Palestine solidarity movement since Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
The Institute for Middle East Understanding, which supported Hamawy’s race, wrote on X that “Voters were drawn to Dr. Hamawy’s candidacy because he knows firsthand the reality of Israel’s genocide in Gaza like few do – having worked to save the lives of Palestinian children under bombardment and unimaginable conditions.”
Yet while Hamawy is likely to win a seat in Congress in November and perhaps join the “Squad” of progressive lawmakers, there are serious obstacles to changing U.S. policy on Palestine from within the halls of Congress. In fact, Hamawy’s election comes as Biden-era advisors who helped engineer Israel’s genocide in Gaza are reportedly regrouping to shape the Democratic Party’s approach to Palestine ahead of the next presidential race.
Adam Hamawy, a doctor who served in Gaza amid the genocide, won a New Jersey congressional primary on Tuesday, demonstrating the continued impact of the Palestine solidarity movement on U.S. politics.
Egyptian-born Hamawy beat 11 other Democrats and will be the Democratic candidate on the ballot for New Jersey’s 12th Congressional District. The winner of the Democratic primary is expected to easily win a seat in Congress in November.
Hamawy’s campaign focused on ending U.S. aggression in the Middle East and a call to abolish ICE.
“You’ve heard throughout this race that I said over and over again: health care, not bombs; to abolish ICE; and to unrig this economy,” he told supporters on Tuesday night — echoing the calls of the Palestine solidarity movement and immigrant justice advocates. Hamawy also supports ending U.S. military aid to Israel.
“They are solutions to a crisis that was born out of a broken and rigged political and economic system – a system that floods money overseas to bomb children’s schools, while at the same time says that child care here in America is pie in the sky,” he explained.
Hamawy worked as an army combat doctor during the Iraq War in 2004 and 2005. He has also participated in numerous medical missions: to Bosnia, Sudan, Haiti, Lebanon, Syria, and Gaza.
Hamawy participated in medical missions to Gaza in 2024 and 2025, which he credits as part of the reason he ran for office.
In an interview with Mondoweiss, Hamawy said, “over the last two years, I’ve been to Gaza twice and the West Bank. What I witnessed there really compelled me to get more involved. I’ve seen war before; I’ve been to Iraq. I know the horrors of war, but what I witnessed was a genocide. I saw more children and civilians blown up than ever in my life. It was so horrible that when I came back, I felt it was my obligation to go to Congress and speak about what I had seen. These are American bombs that are being dropped. These are our taxpayer dollars that are being used.”
After the medical mission, “I felt I had to go to Washington to fix this myself,” he told Al Jazeera.
The medical mission – organized by the World Health Organization and the Palestinian American Medical Association – was temporarily blocked by Israel from exiting Gaza. When other foreign medical workers were eventually evacuated from the Strip, Hamawy and two other doctors refused to leave, demanding more medical workers be let into the enclave.
In the days before the primary race, media reports smeared Hamawy as tied to Islamic extremists because of his testimony in a 1995 trial for Omar Abdel-Rahman, a New Jersey-based religious leader who was convicted of inspiring terror attacks. Hamawy has said that he knew Abdel-Rahman through the local Egyptian American community, that he opposes all forms of violence, and that smears against him are simply Islamophobia.
“There once was a time where this might have worked, when racist and anti-Muslim attacks would have turned an election,” he said upon winning the primary. “But tonight we proved that this era of American politics is over.” This was also the case with New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s race in 2025 — while the Islamophobic attacks on him in the period prior to the election would have made his win unlikely in the past, the shift is likely due to the impact of the Palestine solidarity movement since Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
The Institute for Middle East Understanding, which supported Hamawy’s race, wrote on X that “Voters were drawn to Dr. Hamawy’s candidacy because he knows firsthand the reality of Israel’s genocide in Gaza like few do – having worked to save the lives of Palestinian children under bombardment and unimaginable conditions.”
Yet while Hamawy is likely to win a seat in Congress in November and perhaps join the “Squad” of progressive lawmakers, there are serious obstacles to changing U.S. policy on Palestine from within the halls of Congress. In fact, Hamawy’s election comes as Biden-era advisors who helped engineer Israel’s genocide in Gaza are reportedly regrouping to shape the Democratic Party’s approach to Palestine ahead of the next presidential race.
‘A Strong Working-Class Agenda With Moral Clarity’: UAW Endorses Abdul El-Sayed
In what could be his most important endorsement in the tight Senate primary, Michigan’s largest and most influential union said El-Sayed was “someone we can trust to have our backs.”
Democratic Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed speaks to members of United Auto Workers (UAW) Local 600 in Dearborn, Michigan on March 9, 2026.
(Photo from Abdul El-Sayed/X)
Stephen Prager
Jun 05, 2026
COMMON DREAMS
Momentum behind Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, the progressive hopeful for Michigan’s US Senate seat, continued to build on Friday when the candidate won a major endorsement from the state’s largest and most influential labor union, the United Auto Workers.
“The UAW is proud to endorse Abdul El-Sayed for US Senate,” the union said in a post to social media. “UAW members in Michigan want a fighter in Washington, DC who isn’t afraid to push forward a strong working-class agenda with moral clarity.”
Working Families Party Goes ‘All-In’ to Support El-Sayed in Michigan
El-Sayed Announces ‘We Can Do Better’ Tour Across Michigan to Hear From Biden-to-Trump Voters
“Having never taken a dime from corporate PACs, Dr. Abdul El-Sayed is someone we can trust to have our backs,” the union continued. “From Medicare for All to banning stock buybacks, Dr. Abdul El-Sayed is ready, eager, and well-equipped to move our core issues in the US Senate.”
Despite stronger establishment backing for his opponents, Rep. Haley Stevens (D-Mich.) and state Sen. Mallory McMorrow (D-8), recent polls show El-Sayed, Detroit’s former health director, as a narrow frontrunner for the Democratic primary scheduled for early August, where the winner is expected to face the Republican former US Rep. Mike Rogers for the vacant Senate seat.
El-Sayed has won the endorsements of other unions, such as National Nurses United; progressive groups, including the Working Families Party; Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.); and several like-minded Democrats, such as Michigan’s US Rep. Rashida Tlaib; Reps. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) and Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.); and Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison.
But the endorsement of the storied UAW, which boasts over 350,000 active and retired members in Michigan, might be his biggest yet as he seeks to transition fully from insurgent to frontrunner.
“I am so honored and humbled,” El-Sayed said on social media as he prepared to join striking UAW Local 2093 American Axle workers on the picket line in Three Rivers on Friday. “Michigan union autoworkers built the American middle class and proved that when people stand together, there’s nothing we can’t accomplish. Solidarity forever.”
Dan Merica, a reporter at The Washington Post, noted that losing the UAW endorsement to El-Sayed was a particularly big blow to Stevens, “who is running as a technocrat, often referring to herself as a ‘manufacturing geek’ because of her work as one of President Barack Obama’s top officials on the 2009 auto rescue.”
It could have major implications in a race that is not only critical for deciding the balance of power in the Senate this November, but is widely perceived as a battle for the future of the Democratic Party.
Michigan’s importance is surely not lost on Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY). The New York Times reported on Friday that despite a public stance of neutrality, he is working behind the scenes to push party donors to support Stevens, the most conservative Democrat in the three-way race. The representative for suburban Detroit recently came under scrutiny over her backing from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and the for-profit health insurance industry.
In response to what The Washington Post described as the establishment’s “concerted bid to hew to the political center,” the progressive advocacy group MoveOn said, “Once again the Democratic establishment seems to think it knows what’s best for voters [more] than voters themselves,” and congratulated El-Sayed on his endorsement.
“There’s a reason his campaign is inspiring people all over the state,” said MoveOn’s chief communications officer Joel Payne. “His economic populism resonates with Michiganders who are sick of lip service, dark money, and politicians who don’t seem to get their day-to-day struggles.”
“Those in congressional cloakrooms and in the establishment class in DC may not like it,” he continued, “but real Michiganders continue to make their support for El-Sayed’s economic populism and people-centered agenda clear.”
In what could be his most important endorsement in the tight Senate primary, Michigan’s largest and most influential union said El-Sayed was “someone we can trust to have our backs.”
Democratic Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed speaks to members of United Auto Workers (UAW) Local 600 in Dearborn, Michigan on March 9, 2026.
(Photo from Abdul El-Sayed/X)
Stephen Prager
Jun 05, 2026
COMMON DREAMS
Momentum behind Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, the progressive hopeful for Michigan’s US Senate seat, continued to build on Friday when the candidate won a major endorsement from the state’s largest and most influential labor union, the United Auto Workers.
“The UAW is proud to endorse Abdul El-Sayed for US Senate,” the union said in a post to social media. “UAW members in Michigan want a fighter in Washington, DC who isn’t afraid to push forward a strong working-class agenda with moral clarity.”
Working Families Party Goes ‘All-In’ to Support El-Sayed in Michigan
El-Sayed Announces ‘We Can Do Better’ Tour Across Michigan to Hear From Biden-to-Trump Voters
“Having never taken a dime from corporate PACs, Dr. Abdul El-Sayed is someone we can trust to have our backs,” the union continued. “From Medicare for All to banning stock buybacks, Dr. Abdul El-Sayed is ready, eager, and well-equipped to move our core issues in the US Senate.”
Despite stronger establishment backing for his opponents, Rep. Haley Stevens (D-Mich.) and state Sen. Mallory McMorrow (D-8), recent polls show El-Sayed, Detroit’s former health director, as a narrow frontrunner for the Democratic primary scheduled for early August, where the winner is expected to face the Republican former US Rep. Mike Rogers for the vacant Senate seat.
El-Sayed has won the endorsements of other unions, such as National Nurses United; progressive groups, including the Working Families Party; Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.); and several like-minded Democrats, such as Michigan’s US Rep. Rashida Tlaib; Reps. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) and Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.); and Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison.
But the endorsement of the storied UAW, which boasts over 350,000 active and retired members in Michigan, might be his biggest yet as he seeks to transition fully from insurgent to frontrunner.
“I am so honored and humbled,” El-Sayed said on social media as he prepared to join striking UAW Local 2093 American Axle workers on the picket line in Three Rivers on Friday. “Michigan union autoworkers built the American middle class and proved that when people stand together, there’s nothing we can’t accomplish. Solidarity forever.”
Dan Merica, a reporter at The Washington Post, noted that losing the UAW endorsement to El-Sayed was a particularly big blow to Stevens, “who is running as a technocrat, often referring to herself as a ‘manufacturing geek’ because of her work as one of President Barack Obama’s top officials on the 2009 auto rescue.”
It could have major implications in a race that is not only critical for deciding the balance of power in the Senate this November, but is widely perceived as a battle for the future of the Democratic Party.
Michigan’s importance is surely not lost on Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY). The New York Times reported on Friday that despite a public stance of neutrality, he is working behind the scenes to push party donors to support Stevens, the most conservative Democrat in the three-way race. The representative for suburban Detroit recently came under scrutiny over her backing from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and the for-profit health insurance industry.
In response to what The Washington Post described as the establishment’s “concerted bid to hew to the political center,” the progressive advocacy group MoveOn said, “Once again the Democratic establishment seems to think it knows what’s best for voters [more] than voters themselves,” and congratulated El-Sayed on his endorsement.
“There’s a reason his campaign is inspiring people all over the state,” said MoveOn’s chief communications officer Joel Payne. “His economic populism resonates with Michiganders who are sick of lip service, dark money, and politicians who don’t seem to get their day-to-day struggles.”
“Those in congressional cloakrooms and in the establishment class in DC may not like it,” he continued, “but real Michiganders continue to make their support for El-Sayed’s economic populism and people-centered agenda clear.”
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