Muslim American Hero of September 11 Remembered

By Laura J. Brown
Washington File Staff Writer

Young New Yorker helped rescue effort at World Trade Center

Washington - At 12 years old, Salman Hamdani was the kind of boy who rescued sick pigeons from New York's streets and nursed them back to health. His mother Talat grew accustomed to seeing him return to their Queens home with new patients tucked gingerly under his arm. "Always compassionate," Talat says of her eldest son.

At 23 years old, Hamdani was the kind of man who would rush to the scene of an emergency to help people, even if it meant putting himself in danger. His family believes that is what he did on the morning of September 11, when en route to work in Manhattan he changed course and headed for the World Trade Center, arriving before the towers fell.

Seven months after the terrorist attacks on New York, the Hamdani family is beginning to accept the death of Salman. He had left home as usual on the morning of September 11, taking the Number 7 elevated subway train. But he did not show up at Howard Hughes Medical Institute at Rockefeller University, where he worked as a laboratory technician, and he did not return home.

After Salman's disappearance, his family assumed that he must have died in the terrorist attacks, for they could come up with no other explanation. Salman, a trained emergency medical technician, may have seen the burning towers from his train and diverted his route to ground zero, his family and friends thought.

"Everyone who knew him thought that was exactly what he would have done, that he would immediately have wanted to help," said Joseph Nekola, a senior director at Rockefeller University, where Salman worked.

In addition to their own fear and sorrow, the family endured rumors that Salman was either connected with the terrorists or in hiding. But by October it was all but certain that Salman had died at the scene of the terrorist attacks, and his heroism was recognized in the "USA Patriot Act" of 2001, a Congressional act on intercepting and obstructing acts of terrorism. One section of the legislation condemns discrimination against Arab and Muslim Americans and mentions Salman by name:

"Many Arab Americans and Muslim Americans have acted heroically during the attacks on the United States, including Mohammed Salman Hamdani, a 23-year-old New Yorker of Pakistani descent, who is believed to have gone to the World Trade Center to offer rescue assistance and is now missing," the passage reads.

Talat and her husband, Saleem, received confirmation of their son's death March 20, nearly seven months after his disappearance. Two police officers arrived to deliver the news that Salman had indeed died on September 11, and that his remains had been found in the rubble near the north tower. "We knew he would be there," Talat said. "That's him -- he would have gone there as soon as he saw people needed help."

Several hundred mourners attended the funeral service April 5, held at a Manhattan mosque on East 96th Street that Salman frequented. Friends and families eulogized Salman, his remains in a flag-draped coffin. New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg praised Salman's heroism, saying, "We have an example of how one can make the world better. Salman stood up when most people would have gone in the other direction."

Also present were several officers from the New York Police Department, including Commissioner Raymond Kelly. Salman had joined the NYPD cadet program three years earlier, working as a cadet while finishing his degree in biochemistry from Queens College. "We don't know how many people he helped, how many lives he saved," said Commissioner Kelly. "But if you look at his life, you know he was determined to make a difference, and he did. He was indeed a hero."

The eldest of three boys, Salman was known to his brothers and extended family as "bhaijan,"or"big brother." For as long as they can remember, he wanted to be a doctor and took care of both family members and strangers in need.

While studying in London during his junior year in college, Salman was walking through the streets when he saw a homeless woman sitting on the ground with blood on her face. Salman spoke with her, tended to her bloody nose and gave her some money, his mother said.

In college, Salman completed training as an emergency medical technician. He worked for a time with MetroCare, a private ambulance company, and made friends with some of his patients. "He wouldn't just transport them to the hospital, he also cared enough to check up on them, visit them at home afterwards. He was that way," said Talat.

Salman was a fun-loving boy who earned a black belt in karate, who loved the Star Wars films and who chose his football jersey number, 79, to match the address of his father's candy store. He graduated from Queens College in June and started a new job as a laboratory technician in July. His mother recalls that he was too modest to let the family celebrate his accomplishments.

Talat said Salman, who came to the United States when he was one year old, did not like the fact that he could not become president of the country. At his funeral service April 5, she called him "a true American" who risked his life to help his country.

"You went down there to help rescue fellow Americans from the terrorist attack on the American soil," Talat said, addressing her fallen son. "You did not go down to help because of their religion, ethnicity or nationality. You went to defend your nation."

Talat is particularly proud of Salman's mention in the Patriot Act, which Congress passed October 23, her son's last contribution to his country. "Salman went down in U.S. history," she said. "The nation honored him. My son did not die for nothing."

In Salman's honor, his family has established the Shaheed Mohammad Salman Hamdani Memorial Fund for other Pakistani Americans pursuing a medical degree at Howard Hughes Medical Institute at Rockefeller University, where Salman worked.