Queens Primary Winner Aber Kawas Under Fire After Old Video Clips Bring Up 9/11 and Capitalism System
A young socialist sister secures the win in Queens while the media tries to drag her over some 2017 podcast talk.
Look, the political game in New York is always messy, but things just got real interesting out in Queens. Aber Kawas, a local community organizer who’s backed by that socialist candidate running for NYC mayor, Zohran Mamdani, just locked down the Democratic primary for State Senate District 12. But instead of letting her celebrate the win, the media went straight to the archives to dig up some old dirt from a 2017 podcast, trying to paint her as some kind of radical who hates America.
The whole drama is about a clip from a show called "Islamophobia beyond 9/11 with Aber Kawas," hosted by the Asian American Writers' Association. In the video, Kawas was breaking down how she sees the system, claiming that 9/11 didn’t just happen out of nowhere. She argued that capitalism, racism, and white supremacy have been used for a long time to colonize lands and take people's resources, and that the 2001 terror attacks were just a "manifestation" of all that history.
"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," Kawas said in the clip. Now, the right-wing media is running wild with this, saying she’s out here cheering on the terrorists, while her supporters are saying she was just dropping real history about how global systems operate.
She also called out the double standard of how Muslim folks always have to apologize for what a couple of extremists did. "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. Honestly, that part is real talk—people in the hood know all about how the system makes a whole community pay for the actions of a few.
Of course, the mainstream media and the right-wing talking heads like Laura Ingraham are losing their minds, calling Kawas a "mini Mamdani" who wants a "radical takedown of America." But Kawas ain't backing down. She addressed the noise, saying these were "cherry-picked comments" from years ago meant to distract from her message. She told reporters she was simply defending Muslims from being wrongfully blamed for things they had nothing to do with.
"Our resounding victory this week shows that the people of Queens simply don’t buy into this kind of desperate, Islamophobic smear," Kawas said. And honestly, she might be right. The voters in Queens didn’t care about some old podcast clips; they cared about her actual platform. In a deeply blue district, folks are more worried about high rents and survival than political talking points designed to scare suburban voters.
Kawas’s personal life also got dragged into the spotlight to make her look bad. The papers started talking about her dad, Abdelkareem Kawas, who came to the US from Jordan on a tourist visa back in '89 and overstayed. He ended up getting locked up for real estate fraud and then deported. The media acts like this is some massive scandal, but in the community, plenty of families know the pain of having relatives locked up or snatched by ICE.
Besides her family story, Kawas has been doing real work on the streets as the Youth Activities Director for the Arab-American Association of New York and has ties to CAIR, a Muslim civil rights group. She’s also been out here marching with Claire Valdez, demanding rent freezes for working-class people in Long Island City who are getting priced out of their own neighborhoods. That’s the kind of work that actually gets people to the polls.
In her victory speech, Kawas didn't just talk about local stuff; she also brought up foreign policy, making Gaza a big part of her platform. She told the crowd that "another world is possible," and that means "a world where Gaza is free to live." While the media tries to frame her as some kind of national security threat, she’s building a coalition of young progressives who are tired of the old establishment running things the same old way.
At the end of the day, this whole situation shows the massive gap between the media elite and the people living on the block. The establishment is terrified of these young, socialist candidates who aren’t afraid to speak their minds and challenge the status quo. Whether you agree with her old comments or not, Aber Kawas is proof that the political landscape in New York is changing, and the old guard can't stop it.
We'll see how the general election plays out, but one thing is for sure: Kawas isn't changing her tune for anyone. She's keeping it 100 with her base, and the voters in Queens showed they are ready for something different. The corporate politicians better watch out, because the streets are looking for real representation.
