This article reports on the imprisonment of a Muslim former student on charges related to terrorism that has struck a chord among academics and public intellectuals. Syed Fahad Hashmi, a 28-year-old naturalized U.S. citizen born in Pakistan, is being held in solitary confinement at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan, on multiple charges related to terrorism. Jeanne Theoharis, an associate professor of political science at the City University of New York's Brooklyn College, remembers Syed Fahad Hashmi as an energetic student who took frequent advantage of his professors' office hours. Ms. Theoharis also recalls that her student took a keen interest in civil liberties. Mr. Hashmi wrote his final paper for her class on the contradictions between basic American freedoms and ideals and the U.S. government's treatment of citizens since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Mr. Hashmi's involvement in Al Muhajiroun, a controversial and now officially defunct extremist Islamic group based in Britain, is one reason for his arrest. Testimony against Mr. Hashmi by a government informant may also play a role in his continued detention. Mr. Hashmi's ordeal has had a profound effect on Ms. Theoharis and another of his instructors, who have organized a "Free Fahad" campaign to gain his release. She and her colleague Corey Robin, an associate professor of political science at Brooklyn College who began the campaign, have gained the support of hundreds of academics, writers, and social-justice activists. Apart from Mr. Hashmi's personal predicament, the case's potential to create a chilling effect on college campuses is troublesome to those in academe who want him freed.