British political commentator and journalist Sami Hamdi has been detained by federal authorities in america in what a US Muslim civil rights group has known as an “abduction”.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) condemned Hamdi’s detention at San Francisco airport on Sunday as “a blatant affront to free speech”, attributing his arrest to his criticism of Israel’s conflict on Gaza.
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Hamdi, a frequent critic of US and Israeli coverage, had addressed a CAIR gala in Sacramento on Saturday night and was as a result of communicate at one other CAIR occasion in Florida the following day earlier than his detention by the Division of Homeland Safety’s (DHS) Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) company.
CAIR mentioned he was stopped on the airport following a coordinated “far-right, Israel First marketing campaign”.
“Our nation should cease abducting critics of the Israeli authorities on the behest of unhinged Israel First bigots,” it mentioned in a press release. “That is an Israel First coverage, not an America First coverage, and it should finish.”
In a press release seen by Al Jazeera, associates of Hamdi known as his arrest “a deeply troubling precedent for freedom of expression and the security of British residents overseas”.
The assertion known as for the UK International Workplace to “demand pressing clarification from the US authorities relating to the grounds for Mr Hamdi’s detention”.
Al Jazeera was instructed that he stays in US custody and has not been deported.
“The detention of a British citizen for expressing political beliefs units a harmful precedent that no democracy ought to tolerate,” the assertion added.
Hamdi’s father, Mohamed El-Hachmi Hamdi, mentioned in a publish on X that his son “has no affiliation” with any political or non secular group.
“His stance on Palestine is just not aligned with any faction there, however somewhat with the individuals’s proper to safety, peace, freedom and dignity. He’s, fairly merely, one of many younger dreamers of this era, craving for a world with extra compassion, justice, and solidarity,” he added.
Earlier this morning, ICE brokers kidnapped British Muslim journalist and political commentator Sami Hamdi at San Francisco Airport, apparently in response to his vocal criticism of the Israeli authorities throughout his ongoing talking tour.
We are able to affirm that Mr. Hamdi has not been… https://t.co/dfcVGvz6UX
— CAIR Nationwide (@CAIRNational) October 26, 2025
‘Proud Islamophobe’
DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin confirmed Hamdi’s detention on Sunday, claiming with out proof that he posed a nationwide safety menace. “This particular person’s visa was revoked, and he’s in ICE custody pending removing,” she wrote on X.
Hamdi has been outspoken in accusing US politicians of actively enabling Israel’s genocide in Gaza, and has been broadly quoted, difficult Western governments straight over arms transfers and diplomatic cowl for Israeli conflict crimes.
His detention comes amid a wider sample of US authorities blocking entry to Palestinian and pro-Palestine voices.
In June, two Palestinian males, Awdah Hathaleen and his cousin, Eid Hathaleen, have been denied entry on the identical airport and deported to Qatar. Weeks later, Awdah was reportedly killed by an Israeli settler within the occupied West Financial institution.
Far-right activist and ally of US President Donald Trump, Laura Loomer, who has publicly described herself as a “proud Islamophobe” and “white advocate”, instantly celebrated on-line for taking part in an element in Hamdi’s detention.
“You’re fortunate his solely destiny is being arrested and deported,” she wrote, falsely branding him “a supporter of HAMAS and the Muslim Brotherhood”.
Loomer has beforehand pushed conspiracy theories, together with the declare that the September 11 assaults within the US have been an inside job.
Loomer and others credited the escalation towards Hamdi to the RAIR Basis, a pro-Israel stress community whose said mission is to oppose “Islamic supremacy”. RAIR lately accused Hamdi of making an attempt to “develop a overseas political community hostile to American pursuits” and urged authorities to expel him from the nation.
On Sunday, Shaun Maguire, a accomplice on the tech funding agency Sequoia and a vocal defender of Israel, alleged with out proof that Hamdi had tried to get him fired via an AI-generated electronic mail marketing campaign, claiming: “There are jihadists in America whose full time job is to silence us.”
Hamdi’s supporters and civil rights advocates say the alternative is true, and that this detention is one more case of political retaliation towards critics of Israel, enforced on the border stage earlier than a single public phrase is uttered.
CAIR says it intends to combat the deportation order, warning that the US is sending a chilling message to Muslim and Palestinian audio system throughout the nation.
