Obscuring a Muslim Name, and an American’s Sacrifice

Obscuring a Muslim Name, and an American’s Sacrifice

Todd Heisler/The New York Times

Talat Hamdani, 60, has fought for her son Mohammad Salman Hamdani to be given credit on the Sept. 11 memorial as an early responder.

By SHARON OTTERMAN

Published: January 1, 2012

He was buried after the Sept. 11 attacks with full honors from theNew York Police Department, and proclaimed a hero by the city’s police commissioner. He is cited by name in the Patriot Act as an example of Muslim-American valor.

Multimedia

Portraits Redrawn: Talat Hamdani

Mohammad Salman Hamdani

And Representative Keith Ellison of Minnesota, one of two Muslim members of Congress, was brought to tears during a Congressional hearing in March while describing how the man, a Pakistani-American from Queens, had wrongly been suspected of involvement in the attacks, before he was lionized as a young police cadet who had died trying to save lives.

Despite this history, Mohammad Salman Hamdani is nowhere to be found in the long list of fallen first responders at the National September 11 Memorial in Lower Manhattan.

Nor can his name be found among those of victims whose bodies were found in the wreckage of the north tower, where his body was finally discovered in 34 parts.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/02/nyregion/sept-11-memorial-obscures-a-police-cadets-bravery.html