Mom wants Muslim son’s name moved to be among first responders at 9/11 memorial

[웃 910]

You won’t find Mohammed Hamdani among the names of the first responders that are etched in a wall at the 9/11 memorial in New York.

But on the day of the 9/11 attacks, the 23-year-old certified EMT and onetime NYPD police cadet skipped his job at a university research lab to rush to the World Trade Center. Not long after, his family posted Hamdani’s picture on a wall of the missing.

Six months later, his remains were found - in 34 parts.

"They gave us his jeans and his belt, which my husband identified were his clothes,” says Hamdani’s mom, Talat.

"He was a prime example of what it is to be a human being,” she says, recalling his decision to go to the World Trade Center 11 years ago. “He went in there to save humanity."

When the 9/11 memorial opened last year, Talat wanted to see her son’s name grouped among the first responders who lost their lives trying to help others.

Instead, the Pakistani-American’s name is positioned in a separate section of the memorial, among those considered loosely connected to the World Trade Center.

His mother is convinced her son’s Muslim religion has set him apart: "They are discriminating because of his faith and that is not right."

“He did not stop to wonder are they Christian or Muslims or are they Jews or their ethnicity or their color,” Talat says of her son’s actions on 9/11. “It's just humanity.”

The memorial denies discrimination, saying Hamdani was no longer an active cadet when he was killed and that he had not received a presidential medal for valor, which the memorial says were the memorial’s criteria for “first responder.”

“So many of the names on the 9/11 Memorial represent individuals — both in and out of uniform, known and unknown — who displayed extraordinary bravery on that horrible day, and that includes Mohammed Salman Hamdani," a spokesman for the memorial said in a statement.

"While this case did not meet the criteria for the ‘First Responders’ section of the Memorial, that in no way diminishes the courage and bravery Mr. Hamdani and hundreds of others showed on 9/11,” said the spokesman, Michael Frazier.

At the same time, the NYPD calls Hamdani a hero, having honored him in 2002 with a police funeral that included full honors from New York’s mayor and police commissioner.

"The fact that it was acknowledged in a very, highly honorable fashion was gratifying,” Talat says, remembering that day. “I was very satisfied at that moment."

On the one-year anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, the NYPD gave Hamdani’s family a badge.

Talat says she’ll keep fighting to move the name of her son, who grew up in New York and dreamed of becoming a doctor. She has contacted public officials from her congressman to the White House seeking help with her fight, but to no avail.

"I want to see it in my lifetime,” she says. “It's a very - it's so intense pain that is indescribable."

“He's not here to speak for himself,” Talat says. “I have to speak for him. And I will till the day I die. "

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

The memorial denies discrimination, saying Hamdani ... had not received a presidential medal for valor, which the memorial says were the memorial’s criteria for “first responder.”

Why hasn't Obama fixed this yet?

[Deputy Purple 1,294]

Just to clarify:

Everyone that is listed where she wants her son was both Active Duty EFR (police, fire etc) AND was also awarded with the Presidential Medal for Valor.

Her son while certified as an EMT was not Active Duty EFR in any kind but he was previously a NYPD Cadet.

She now expects for an exception to be made for him and if she doesn't get special treatment for him then she claims its religious discrimination?

Okay, I got it....

[PalestineMyHeart 1,897]

God bless him and his mother.

[Deputy Purple 1,294]

God bless him and his mother.

Agreed but he doesn't deserve special treatment at the memorial does he? He received the same acknowledgement as everyone else based on their participation and status at the time of the tragedy.

In fact, seeing as how he received an Official Police Funeral WITH FULL HONORS when he was simply a former NYPD Cadet and never an active member of NYPD is giving the family something special in his memory.

[sandinista! 1,816]

Agreed but he doesn't deserve special treatment at the memorial does he? He received the same acknowledgement as everyone else based on their participation and status at the time of the tragedy.

In fact, seeing as how he received an Official Police Funeral WITH FULL HONORS when he was simply a former NYPD Cadet and never an active member of NYPD is giving the family something special in his memory.

why not? his status and actions were, in fact, exceptional. exceptional enough to earn an exception made by the nypd in granting a mere cadet a full honors police funeral. an exception was made there. there's nothing unreasonable about the mother of this very exceptional man whose actions warranted other exceptions being made to fully honor him to speak up about what she perceives is a slight on her son's status and memorial recognition. his emt and cadet badges were somehow enough to get him waved through a restricted area at the scene where he later died. he was honored by mayor bloomberg, a congressman, the police commisioner; he's specifically mentioned by name in the usa patriot act. but all of these honors should work against him, in being granted a status his mother feels he also deserves, because hey, that's enough. bob 4 anna's decided we have said ENOUGH to honor his sacrifice, and everyone should shut up about it already. someone can't even post "God bless him and his mother" without you further trying to get some more digs in on this woman.

adding, i wonder how many other 9/11 heroes were initially smeared in the press the way hamdani was?

http://mediamatters.org/research/2011/03/11/liar-right-wing-media-falsely-smear-ellison-ove/177478

[Harsh_77 718]

why not? his status and actions were, in fact, exceptional. exceptional enough to earn an exception made by the nypd in granting a mere cadet a full honors police funeral. an exception was made there. there's nothing unreasonable about the mother of this very exceptional man whose actions warranted other exceptions being made to fully honor him to speak up about what she perceives is a slight on her son's status and memorial recognition. his emt and cadet badges were somehow enough to get him waved through a restricted area at the scene where he later died. he was honored by mayor bloomberg, a congressman, the police commisioner; he's specifically mentioned by name in the usa patriot act. but all of these honors should work against him, in being granted a status his mother feels he also deserves, because hey, that's enough. bob 4 anna's decided we have said ENOUGH to honor his sacrifice, and everyone should shut up about it already. someone can't even post "God bless him and his mother" without you further trying to get some more digs in on this woman.

adding, i wonder how many other 9/11 heroes were initially smeared in the press the way hamdani was?

http://mediamatters.org/research/2011/03/11/liar-right-wing-media-falsely-smear-ellison-ove/177478

Coz there were lot more ppl who did they could possibliy do to save other people's life, strangers helped other strangers in whichever way they could.

So all of these names should be placed in section with First Responder?

[Deputy Purple 1,294]

why not? his status and actions were, in fact, exceptional. exceptional enough to earn an exception made by the nypd in granting a mere cadet a full honors police funeral. an exception was made there.

Seriously, there was solid criteria for being listed in the EFR section and there were no exceptions made.

He was honored in the same way as all of the other people who made the same exceptional sacrifice. It's nice that NYPD made an exception for him and his family should be happy for that. I suppose his mom should get full military death benefits for him also?

By making an exception for anyone who didn't meet the EFR criteria it would reduce the honor that the EFR listing is meant to reflect and disrespect everyone who was in the same situation as him but didn't get the same special exception.

This has nothing to do with his religion...

[del-2-5-2014 1,339]

She's a dolt.

[aaydrian 479]

How about for all this git's whining they remove the name of her son from the 9/11 memorial? You don't meet the standard you don't get in.

[sandinista! 1,816]

the first responders at the scene thought he was first responder enough to let him into that restricted area. that exception was not granted to just any would be do-gooder on that awful day. it's not like the fdny at that time was just waving anybody through that said "hey, let me help out, i got skills". that's how he got in there in the first place. part of establishing the identity of his remains was based on finding his medical bag, that had, you know, first responder gear in it. what his mother is asking for is nothing to do with death benefits, she's not out for money. it represents an unfortunate oversight, that can be fixed.

“That’s where the model falls down,” said Thomas H. Rogér, a member of the memorial foundation’s board who was deeply involved in those discussions. “That was the sad part about it. If you weren’t affiliated with one of the groups that had a constituency that was at the table, when we were carrying out all these negotiations, then nobody was representing your cause.”

Mr. Rogér, of the memorial foundation, wondered if Mr. Hamdani’s name could appear in the Police Department’s section of the memorial with an asterisk noting that he was a police cadet. The Rev. Chloe Breyer, the executive director of the Interfaith Center of New York, also suggested some compromise.

“It shows an enormous lack of imagination on the part of the N.Y.P.D. and museum not to figure out a way to acknowledge adequately the special sacrifice he made and that his mother endures daily,” she said in an e-mail.

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

[Deputy Purple 1,294]

the first responders at the scene thought he was first responder enough to let him into that restricted area. that exception was not granted to just any would be do-gooder on that awful day. it's not like the fdny at that time was just waving anybody through that said "hey, let me help out, i got skills". that's how he got in there in the first place. part of establishing the identity of his remains was based on finding his medical bag, that had, you know, first responder gear in it. what his mother is asking for is nothing to do with death benefits, she's not out for money. it represents an unfortunate oversight

So anyone who carried a medical bag on that day should be honored the exact same those who made a career choice to put the needs of others above thier own?

What he did was honorable but it doesn't put him at the same level as the fire fighter who climbed all the way to survivors of the impact only to die with them when the tower fell.

The guys listed in the EFR section were putting thier lives on the line day in and day out. They deserve the recgonition.

[sandinista! 1,816]

It's raining strawmen.

In addition to being a research assistant @

Rockefeller University, while he was prepping his med school applications after becoming a police cadet, he'd been an EMT with Metro Ambulance for a year when 9/11 happened. So no, he didn't just crawl out of his parents' basement that morning and stumble into trying to do something heroic that day. By all accounts, it was in fact his life. Plenty of people have found his actions that day to not only be heroic, but to be exceptionally so. The NYPD certainly did when they gave a cadet a full honors funeral. There's no lack of precedence for major exceptions to a lot of status quos here when it comes to this guy.

[Dakine10 5,452]

How about for all this git's whining they remove the name of her son from the 9/11 memorial? You don't meet the standard you don't get in.

Say what you want about the mom, but her son did not have a say in any of this. I doubt the prospect of being included in a memorial held any motivation for his actions that day. To even suggest removing someone's name from the memorial seems very disrespectful to me.

[The Nature Boy 4,224]

Just to clarify:

Everyone that is listed where she wants her son was both Active Duty EFR (police, fire etc) AND was also awarded with the Presidential Medal for Valor.

Her son while certified as an EMT was not Active Duty EFR in any kind but he was previously a NYPD Cadet.

She now expects for an exception to be made for him and if she doesn't get special treatment for him then she claims its religious discrimination?

Okay, I got it....

Thanks. You always have to sift thru and get the facts when dealing with these types. I understand a Mothers grief, but he does not belong on that wall, nothing to do with his Religion. I would be curious to know if there are any Muslims already on that wall that were Public Service Employees.