Anger at justice system replaced by overwhelming grief, friend says
By IAN ROBERTSON, SUN MEDIA
Saturday, August 29, 2009
Instead, taxi driver Ahmed Abdikarim Mohammed remains here, lecturing youth against violence while reliving the pain, anguish and senselessness of the violence that claimed his eldest son.
But when he is finished his day, close friend Abdi Warsame told the Sun yesterday, he returns to an empty North York house.
Mohammed, former captain of Somalia's national soccer team and later the Sultan of Qatar's bodyguard, "lives there alone," Warsame said.
Afraid for the two brothers of Abdikarim Ahmed Abdikarim, 18, slain March 14, 2008, he said their mother, Shamso Mohamoud, took the 14- and 12-year-old boys to live in Kenya.
Their three older sisters now live in Alberta.
The couple and their five children keep in touch, said Warsame, who often accompanies his friend to speak with youth.
"They have been married 30 years and she is a very loving wife," he said, adding softly: "He is a very lonely man."
Mohammed is currently in England, where he was invited to speak to 20,000 youths and presented sports trophies during Somali Week London 2009. Earlier, he delivered a similar testimonial in Sweden.
After Mohammed's public talks, Warsame, 40, who came to Canada 24 years ago, provides sympathetic support balanced with an understanding of losing loved ones to violence.
At nine, Warsame saw his father slain during "the troubles" in Somalia.
In February, Mohammed said he felt betrayed by the Canadian justice system when a judge ordered Owen Anthony Smith and Wendell Darnian Cuff, both 25, freed of first-degree murder charges in his son's slaying.
"Canada is nothing ... The Canadian government is nothing," he said then.
"He was very angry," Warsame said. "He did not know what he was saying.
"It was very painful to learn the two alleged killers walked out of jail and were free," he said. "We felt it was a miscarriage of justice."
Mohammed's wife decided not to risk raising two younger sons in a city where too many youths resort to guns.
"She did not feel safe," Warsame said. "She did not want their two sons to grow up in that area."
Her husband knew "the burden on his children of the gruesome murder of their brother," his friend and family spokesman said.
The murder "pretty much devastated the family. Everybody felt the pain."
But since his earlier prediction of returning to Africa, Warsame said Mohammed "decided life goes on and he is helping."
Mohammed, whom Warsame says has "courage and is very disciplined," has given numerous public addresses to youths, in schools, churches and mosques, plus sporting events.
At each one, Mohammed relives the pain, sense of loss and waste caused by street violence, and "it is still very hard when I see him," Warsame said. "After, he breaks down and I am with him.
"There is no place in the world like Canada," Warsame said. "It is the most peaceful place on earth.
"This should not be happening to a young man like this ... in Canada," he said.
Source: Toronto Sun, August 29, 2009