As ABC News and others are reporting, a federal judge called Wednesday for the release of Mohsen Mahdawi — the former president of Columbia University’s Buddhist Association and student activist who has been critical of Israel’s actions in Gaza, and was detained in Vermont by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services on April 14. Mahdawi has been now been freed.
Just yesterday NPR released an interview with Mahdawi, the first with him or any of the students detained thus far by the second Trump administration.
In ordering his release, U.S. District Judge Geoffrey Crawford referred to Mahdawi as “a person who has been charged with no crime” and his two weeks of detention as the cause of “great harm.” He also determined, according to ABC, that Mahdawi “should remain in Vermont, where he has a home, and attend school remotely — but said Mahdawi can travel to New York City to meet with his lawyers and go to his university.”
Mahdawi referred to the order as “a light of hope, a hope and faith in the justice system in America,” and struck a defiant tone as regards the administration: “I am not afraid of you.” Speaking to a crowd upon his release, Mahdawi addressed why he’d been detained, sayiong “Because I raised my voice, and I said no to war, yes to peace. Because I said, ‘Enough is enough. Killing more than 50,000 Palestinians is more than enough.’ ”
Mahdawi’s case has found support in some corners of the Buddhist community, most notably in via letters from mostly American Zen teachers as well as from Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi.
