Mosque raising money for taxi driver’s funeral

Times Colonist
By Katie Derosa
Tuesday, July 7, 2015

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A Victoria mosque is raising money to cover the funeral costs of the Yellow Cab driver who died in a crash Friday.

Mohamed Shariff Abdi, 44, a married father of two young children, died after the taxi he was driving struck a utility pole around 2:30 a.m. on Gorge Road near Bridge Street. All three male passengers were taken to hospital — two with life-threatening injuries and a third, who was wearing a seatbelt, with serious injuries.

The Masjid Al-Iman mosque on Quadra Street has been holding prayer services in Abdi’s honour and collecting money for his funeral and to support his family.

“We have an obligation to support and cover the costs of the burial and also for the family,” said Jemal Mohamed, the mosque’s treasurer.

If Abdi had died a natural death, he would have been buried on Monday, as Islamic custom is to hold the burial as soon as possible. However, the mosque has had to wait for the autopsy and for the body to be released by the coroner, Mohamed said.

Abdi and his family had been attending the mosque for many years.

“He was always a very happy face,” Mohamed said.

Mohamed said he saw Abdi at the mosque a few days before the crash and was later shocked to learn of his death.

Ali Ibrahim, a fellow Yellow Cab driver and member of Victoria’s Somali community, has known Abdi since 2000.

The two would often go to each other’s homes or see each other at the mosque.

Ibrahim described Abdi as a “very funny guy, very social guy, very family-oriented.”

Ibrahim was driving his cab Friday morning and he spoke to Abdi about 10 minutes before the crash happened. Abdi was in good spirits and there was nothing to indicate he was tired or unable to drive, Ibrahim said.

Abdi picked up the three men from the Duke Saloon and headed west on Gorge Road.

Victoria police and are in the process of obtaining video recorded from inside the taxi to try to determine what went wrong. Police are investigating whether speed or impairment were factors in the crash.

Abdi had worked for Yellow Cab for 10 years, said operations manager Surinder Kang. Abdi moved to Canada to escape turmoil in his home country of Somalia in the 1990s, and settled in Victoria shortly afterward.

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