A boxer, leader and community healer: Slain Newark imam left a lasting legacy
Imam Hassan Sharif, who was shot dead outside his mosque on Jan. 3, was a beloved figure who fed the needy and fought gun violence. His killing remains unsolved.
When Hassan Sharif first stepped inside the Charlie Dew Drop Boxing Club in Newark, New Jersey, he was a young dad with a hulking frame. But what stood out more than his size, his former boxing coach said, was the quiet, dignified way he carried himself outside of the ring.
“He was all muscle,” said John “Brother Yahya” Thompson, who trained Sharif for a handful of amateur bouts in the late 1990s. “But he was a peaceful guy. I’ve never even heard him argue.”
Sharif went on to become the imam of one of Newark’s most storied mosques. He developed a reputation as a tireless community leader who fed the needy and fought gun violence.
But Sharif, 52, was fatally shot outside the Masjid Muhammad mosque on Jan. 3, a still-unsolved murder that has stunned and baffled those who knew him well.
“When I heard what happened, I was like, ‘Who’d want to do something to him?’” Thompson said.
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