When the World Trade Center was attacked on Sept. 11, 2001, Salman Hamdani rushed toward the Twin Towers to help. The 23-year-old New York City Police Department cadet and emergency medical technician lost his life that day, but his story of heroism — and his family’s struggle to ensure he was recognized as a hero — lives on in a documentary film co-created by Mohammad Khalil, Professor in the Department of Religious Studies and Director of the Muslim Studies Program at Michigan State University.
An abbreviated, 26-minute version of the documentary, American Jedi: The Salman Hamdani Story, which was released in 2023, will air on WKAR-HD on Friday, Sept. 11, at 4:30 p.m. The complete 38-minute film can be streamed through the MSU Libraries website and is also available on YouTube.
Khalil produced and directed the film along with Nick Eyde, executive producer and manager of GEYDE Development, and Kraig Westfall, film producer, editor, and co-owner of Good Fruit Video.
American Jedi: The Salman Hamdani Story explores Hamdani’s heroism as well as his mother’s struggle to honor her son and confront the suspicion and discrimination Muslim Americans faced in the post-9/11 world.
In the weeks that followed the attacks, Hamdani, a devout Muslim and proud Pakistani American, was reported missing, and his disappearance came under investigation, seemingly because of his religion and ethnicity. Family members were questioned by the FBI and New York Police Department about possible involvement in the attacks. Hamdani’s mother, Talat, fought for the truth and to honor her son, whose remains, along with his medical bag, were found five months later in the wreckage of the World Trade Center’s North Tower.
Hamdani eventually was hailed a hero, and in 2014, the street outside his childhood home in the Bayside neighborhood of New York City was renamed “Salman Hamdani Way” in recognition of his sacrifice as a first responder to the World Trade Center attacks.
“This is a remarkable story,” Khalil said, “and I’m honored that we were able to play a role in sharing it with others.”
By Kim Popiolek
