BY WALTER ELLIOTT
COVER PHOTO BY KRISTOPHER SEALS
NEWARK – The mourning for Imam Hassan Sharif, who was shot dead outside of his mosque early Jan. 3, continued past his Jan. 6 Janazah prayer service here.
The hunt for Sharif’s killer, as of presstime, also continues, fueled in part by a $25,000 reward for information posted by the Essex County Sheriff’s Office Crime Stoppers web page Jan. 4. The Council of American-Islamic Relations has also posted a $10,000 reward.
Several hundred to over 1,000 mourners came for Sharif’s service here at the NIA Masjid and Community Center, at 231 Roseville Ave. “The Roseville Mosque” ‘s sanctuary, which was selected for the ample space, was filled. Mourners took up its parking lot and took up Roseville Avenue between Park Avenue and William Street, a crowd approaching what it has had for its annual Day of Dignity before moving that to Lincoln Park recently.
PHOTO BY THOMAS ELLIS II
Speakers were set up for those outside the sanctuary to hear the prayers and remarks.
As early as 8:30 a.m., Roseville Avenue was closed between Park Avenue and Seventh Avenue, causing NJTransit Route No. 34 buses, among other traffic, to take detours. Mourners found themselves parking some two blocks away that early.
Sharif, 52, had been Masjid Muhammad-Newark’s imam for five years after his 2018 election. The Manhattan-born Sharif was a West Side High School graduate who later received a degree in criminal justice. The US Transportation Security Administration was also a member of Newark’s Interfaith Alliance.
It had started out in the old Victoria / Congress Theater at 257 South Orange Ave. before the nation of Islam’s Muhammad’s Mosque No. 25 was established there in 1955.
Mosque No. 25 moved to other city places when the congregation followed W.D. Muhammad’s Sunni Muslim path in the late 1970s. Muhammad’s Mosque-Newark, over time, renovated 253-55 South Orange Ave. A “demolition” project for 257 SOA is listed on its website.
The mosque, besides its five-times daily prayers and on holy days, holds Friday Jummah services, Arabic language lessons, Tai Chi classes, the Clara Muhammad Weekend School, and every other Sunday food distribution. Plans call for expanding Clara Muhammad classes into a full Kindergarten-12th Grade school.
Sharif, while imam, had worked in anti-violence events on an individual and group bases. He lent space to the Muslim League of Voters of NJ and the Newark Safe Surrender program.
Sharif had opened 253-257 South Orange Ave. for 6:15 a.m. Fajr prayers like most any other morning. He did recall encountering and subduing a hostile individual while opening the mosque some six months ago.
He walked back to his car parked in the lot off the northwest corner of South Orange Avenue and Camden Street, which the mosque shares with a church, after 6 a.m.
It was in Sharif’s car where they found him with two gunshot wounds to his chest. He was rushed to Newark’s University Hospital two blocks away, where he died at 2:21 p.m.
Wife Aisha, five children, three stepchildren and five grandchildren are among his survivors. Sharif’s body was buried at East Hanover’s Restland Memorial Cemetery.
Several hundred people converged on the corner of South Orange and Camden that night. The crowd included congregants from several masjids, the Newark Anti-Violence Coalition and Council Members Rev. Dr. Louise Scott-Rountree and Rev. Patrick Council.
“We want justice on this corner because he fought for justice on this corner,” said Council. “We want righteousness on this corner because he wanted righteousness on this corner. We want to end oppression on this corner because he wanted to end oppression on this corner. And we want the person who committed this crime to turn himself in right now.”
Traffic, including buses on NJTransit’s No. 31 bus route, were detoured.
N.J. Attorney General Matthew Platkin and Newark Public Safety Director Fritz Frage, that afternoon, said that they believe that Sharif’s shooting was an individual matter and not linked to Islamophobia or terrorism.
“This murder investigation is in the hands of the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office and our public safety ecosystem is supporting their efforts in every way possible. We will bring the perpetrator to justice, no matter how long it takes, and we encourage him to turn himself in through Newark’s Safe Surrender program,” Mayor Ras J. Baraka’s said in a statement on the murder of Imam Hassan Sharif.
“We don’t yet know all the details, but here is what we do know: Imam Hassan Sharif stood with the people of this city, and we will stand with him and his family.
“None of us has to know the details about this shooting to condemn it. Any act of violence, any killing or harming of any person, is never okay – no matter what precipitates or motivates such a depraved act.
“Today we mourn a fellow Newarker and a member of our city’s multi-faith clergy community. I am disgusted that a gun has made its way through our community to kill one of us.
“I mourn the death of Imam Hassan Sharif and know any expression of condolence and comfort for his family and loved ones is inadequate. Our hearts are broken.
“As a city, we mourn so much today, but we must refuse to mourn our capacity to love each other and to embody our ideals for tolerance and understanding, acceptance, and equality. We must continue to build a Newark that serves as a safe refuge for all – and where justice is served to those who act out in violence. We must refuse to mourn our capacity to reach out to each other before difficulties become crises. And we must tighten our embrace of each other with full and tender compassion.”
