(CNN) -- The e-mail arrived from Uzbekistan on February 26. It was titled "Bad News."

Abdul Dadahanov had intended to study business, but changed his mind after 9/11, his academic adviser said.

"Dear Mama Judy," a young woman named Aziza Dadahanov wrote in shaky English. "Very very bad news!!! Abdul is given 8 years of prison. Today was the verdict. Now i feel myself very bad. And i can't write now. I am shocked."

"It was like being kicked in the stomach," recalled Judy Skartvedt, a retired flight attendant living in Easton, Connecticut.

She knew Dadahanov's husband, Abdul Dadahanov, as an Uzbek exchange student who had wanted to help heal people after the 9/11 attacks. She thought of him as an open-minded Muslim whom her family had hosted when he came on a scholarship to study at Fairfield University in 2001.

"We were totally shocked that someone like Abdul could be arrested for anything," Skartvedt said. "We haven't stopped worrying about his safety."

The 32-year-old faces eight years in a labor camp for participation in what the Uzbekistan government says is an extremist religious organization, according to Forum 18, a religious freedom watchdog organization

The group says that Uzbek security forces arrested Dadahanov and four other men -- Bakhrom Ibrahimov, Davron Kabilov, Rovshanbek Favoyev and Botyrbek Eshkuziyev -- last summer after the men had written for an Islamic journal called Irmoq. The National Security Service reportedly claimed the magazine was "sponsored by a Turkish radical religious movement."

Officials from the Embassy of Uzbekistan in Washington have refused to comment on the case.

Forum 18 says Dadahanov and the four other Uzbek men were convicted of "dissemination of information and materials containing ideas of religious extremism, separatism and fundamentalism, calls for pogroms or violent eviction of individuals aimed at creating panic among the population."

Human rights organizations say the convictions appear to be part of a broader crackdown in the former Soviet republic, targeting members of "Nurchilar," a moderate Muslim movement of Turkish origin, which follows the writing of a 19th-century Sufi Muslim theologian.

"Unfortunately this is not an unusual case," said Igor Vorontsov, a researcher with Human Rights Watch in St. Petersburg. "The [Uzbek] government has persisted in its persecution of independent Muslims."

Thousands of miles from the Republic of Uzbekistan, news of Dadahanov's jail sentence has stunned academics and Christian community leaders in Connecticut. They fondly describe a committed social activist and observant Muslim, who rode between work and classes on a secondhand bicycle and spent more than a year distributing food to soup kitchens in one of America's poorer cities.

"He had a naive trust in the goodness of human beings," said Patty Jenson, an administrator at the Council of Churches of Greater Bridgeport. "I am shocked. I know he is there [in prison] unjustly. What is happening is unjust."

"He was a man of his word, he was gentle and kind," said Charlene Chambers, the director of King's Pantry, a nonprofit organization that distributes food to homeless people in Bridgeport. "Our common bond was feeding people who can't feed themselves and clothing those people who can't clothe themselves."

Dadahanov's academic adviser, Katherine Kidd, said the young Uzbek originally intended to study business when he arrived at Fairfield University on a scholarship from the Open Society Institute of the Soros Foundation. That changed September 11, 2001.

Kidd choked up as she recalled his visit to her office, hours after the terrorist attacks.

"He said, 'Dr. Kidd, I have to do something to tell people that this is not what Islam is about.' He said, 'I want to be part of things that are done here to bring healing to people after 9/11.' "

Dadahanov began working closely with Kidd's husband, Pastor John Kidd, who was a Lutheran minister and the executive director of the Council of Churches of Greater Bridgeport. Pastor Kidd helped Dadahanov tour churches
When was Dadahanov jailed? What is Dadahanov a victim of? What activities is he accused of? Where is Dadahanov  jailed? What is his age?
February 26. 9/11, extremist religious organization, Republic of Uzbekistan, 32-year-old
question: When was Dadahanov jailed?, answer: February 26. | question: What is Dadahanov a victim of?, answer: 9/11, | question: What activities is he accused of?, answer: extremist religious organization, | question: Where is Dadahanov  jailed?, answer: Republic of Uzbekistan, | question: What is his age?, answer: 32-year-old