Tom Martinez, Witness: Wallace Shawn Joins Fahad Protest at Brooklyn College

Actor and playwright Wallace Shawn participated in a protest calling attention to the plight of former Brooklyn College student, Fahad Hashmi.

Fahad was born in Karachi, Pakistan in 1980, the second child of Syed Anwar Hashmi and Arifa Hashmi.

Fahad immigrated with his family to America when he was three years old. The large Hashmi family settled in Flushing, New York and soon developed deep roots throughout the tri-state area. Fahad graduated from Robert F. Wagner High School in 1998 and attended SUNY Stony Brook University. He transferred to Brooklyn College, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in political science in 2003.

A devout Muslim, Fahad established a reputation as an activist and advocate. In 2003, Fahad enrolled in London Metropolitan University in England to pursue a master’s degree in international relations, which he received in 2006.

On June 6, 2006, Fahad was arrested in London Heathrow airport by British police based on an American indictment charging him with material support of Al Qaida. He was subsequently held in Belmarsh Prison, Britain’s most notorious jail. Since extradition to the United States he has been held in solitiary confinement in the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan for two years without due legal process.

His parents were at the vigil, along with activists from Brooklyn for Peace, one of his Brooklyn College professors, and others.

Photo: Tom Martinez