Aber Kawas, the Democratic nominee for New York State Senate District 12, is facing sharp criticism after a resurfaced 2017 podcast clip shows her framing the September 11 terror attacks as a consequence of American capitalism, racism, and white supremacy, and dismissing the mass murder of nearly 3,000 people as something "a couple of people did."

Kawas, a Palestinian American democratic socialist and Muslim community activist, handily defeated Democratic Assemblyman Steven Raga in the primary for the western Queens seat being vacated by incumbent State Senator Michael Gianaris. She ran with the backing of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, and in a district so deeply blue that her primary win all but guarantees her a seat in Albany come January.

The controversy centers on comments Kawas made during a 2017 episode of a podcast produced by the Asian American Writers' Association, titled "Islamophobia beyond 9/11 with Aber Kawas." In the episode, as reported by Fox News Digital, Kawas offered a sweeping ideological explanation for the attacks that killed 2,977 Americans:

"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 went further, objecting to any expectation that Muslim Americans should condemn the attacks:

"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."

Read that again. Nearly three thousand dead. Nineteen hijackers backed by the al-Qaeda network. And Kawas reduced it to "a couple of people."

Kawas responds, and calls the criticism 'Islamophobic'

When Fox News Digital contacted Kawas for comment, she did not retract the remarks. Instead, she reframed them as a defense of Muslim Americans against collective blame:

"I've always been outspoken about the wrongful scapegoating of Muslim Americans, both before and after 9/11, and in this interview I was speaking about the harmful notion that Muslims should have to apologize for an act of violence they have nothing to do with."

She then pivoted to her primary victory as proof that voters rejected the criticism altogether:

"Our resounding victory this week shows that the people of Queens simply don't buy into this kind of desperate, Islamophobic smear, and want leaders in office who aren't afraid to call out bigotry, racism, and double standards."

There is a difference between opposing the scapegoating of innocent Muslim Americans, which reasonable people of all political persuasions support, and describing the worst terrorist attack on American soil as a predictable "manifestation" of capitalism and white supremacy. Kawas's 2017 comments did the latter. Her response to Fox News Digital did not address that distinction.

She had previously dismissed the resurfaced remarks in a November 2025 interview as "cherry-picked comments," though the full context of that interview was not detailed.

A pattern, not an isolated clip

The podcast episode is not the only item raising questions about Kawas's views. The New York Post reported that Kawas expressed solidarity with Ahmed Ferhani, who was convicted of plotting to bomb a Manhattan synagogue, calling him her "brother." She also praised Fahad Hashami, who pleaded guilty to conspiracy to provide military support to al-Qaeda, referring to him and similar prisoners as "living martyrs."

Those are not cherry-picked gotcha moments from a college dorm debate. Expressing solidarity with a man convicted of plotting to bomb a synagogue and praising a man who admitted to supporting al-Qaeda reflects a pattern of rhetoric that most New Yorkers, particularly those who lived through September 11, would find deeply troubling.

Breitbart also reported that images circulated on social media showing Kawas wearing a headband associated with Hamas terrorists. Kawas has reportedly been affiliated with the Council on American Islamic Relations, known as CAIR, which has been designated as a terrorist organization in some U.S. states and other countries.

Kawas made Gaza a central issue of her campaign. In her victory speech, she declared that "another world is possible" and envisioned "a world where Gaza is free to live." Whatever one thinks of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, a candidate for state office in New York running on that platform, while carrying this kind of rhetorical baggage, tells you something about the direction of the Democratic Party's activist base in deep-blue urban districts.

The Mamdani machine keeps winning

Kawas is the latest in a string of far-left candidates to win Democratic primaries with the backing of Mayor Mamdani, himself a self-described socialist. The pattern is becoming familiar: Mamdani endorses candidates who run well to the left of even the standard New York Democrat, and they win, often easily, in districts where the primary is the only election that matters.

Kawas defeated Assemblyman Raga to claim the District 12 seat covering Astoria and western Queens. The New York City chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America celebrated the result, declaring: "Palestine was on the ballot, and now a Palestinian-American democratic socialist is going to Albany." That framing, a state legislative race as a referendum on a foreign conflict, captures the priorities of the coalition Mamdani is building.

This is part of a broader trend. Mamdani-backed socialists have been routing New York Democratic incumbents across the city, a development alarming enough that even Attorney General Letitia James has raised concerns about the direction of the party.

Her father's immigration history adds another layer

The New York Post also reported on the immigration history of Kawas's father, Abdelkareem Kawas, a Jordanian national who entered the United States on a tourist visa in 1989 and never left. He was later deported after a conviction for real estate fraud and a prison stint. Aber Kawas has portrayed her father's deportation as "cruel persecution by immigration authorities."

A man overstays a tourist visa, commits real estate fraud, goes to prison, and gets deported, and his daughter describes the process as persecution. That framing tells you how Kawas views immigration enforcement: not as the rule of law applied to someone who broke it, but as an act of cruelty by a fundamentally unjust system.

It is worth noting that Kawas herself has been described as the daughter of illegal immigrants, though the specific immigration status of her mother was not detailed in available reporting.

What voters are getting

Kawas is now the overwhelming favorite to win the general election in November in a district where Republicans are an afterthought. That means the voters of western Queens are likely sending to Albany a democratic socialist who described 9/11 as a "manifestation" of American sins, dismissed the attack as the work of "a couple of people," expressed solidarity with a convicted synagogue bomb plotter, praised a man who admitted to aiding al-Qaeda, and characterized her father's deportation for fraud as persecution.

She will arrive in Albany backed by the mayor's political machine and the DSA's growing infrastructure. She will vote on laws governing the state where nearly 3,000 people were murdered on a clear September morning by terrorists she once described in terms that would make their crimes sound like an inevitable consequence of American life.

Kawas called the scrutiny a "desperate, Islamophobic smear." But the words are hers. The podcast is public. The quotes are on the record. Voters and colleagues can decide for themselves whether a candidate who frames 9/11 as blowback from capitalism and white supremacy belongs in public office.

The question isn't whether Kawas has the right to hold these views. She does. The question is what it says about a political party, and a political machine, that her views are no longer disqualifying, but a selling point.