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Shareef Abdelhaleem’s Profile
Shareef was born in, Cairo, Egypt, on January 01, 1976. He spent his early years in Saudi Arabia, with his family, where his father, Mohammed Abdelhaleem, used to work as a civil engineer. He is a descendent of a prominent Egyptian family. His great great grand father was the Head of Al-Azhar Mosque and the Shaikh of Islam during the early 20th century. His great grand father was a prominent literature writer whom was considered the top writer of the Arabic language in the 1930’s and 1940’s.
In 1981, Shareef went to Elementary school in Egypt. He then, with the rest of the family, went on a work-related tour of Jordan and Kuwait, where they spent over five years. He joined schools in both countries and had friends there.
In 1986, Shareef, with the rest of his family moved to Birmingham, England, where his father started his Masters and PhD studies. Shareef joined a public school in Birmingham, and then in Northampton.
In 1989, the family received immigration applications from the Canadian, Australian and the American Embassies. The decision was made to move to Canada after soliciting friends where the consensus was that the US is too violent and Australia is too racist.
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Shareef joined Clarkson secondary school in Mississauga, and graduated from High school in 1995. He then joined UFT to study computer science. He also headed a computer training school in Mississauga for two years. He never had an inclination to formal studies, something that kept him in trouble with his father since he left UFT.
His passion and excellence in computer software business caused him to abandon his formal studies and take high profile jobs within the pharmaceutical industry. He was very successful in making sound financial progress within few years of work.
Amongst his friends and relatives, Shareef has always been known as a non-violent, soft, gentle, cooperative and very tender hearted person. His life revolved around his work and his passion for travel. One of Shareef’s qualities, for the better or the worse, is his complete trust of people. He always maintained his opinion that people, of all race, color or religion, are basically good, no matter their background. As a result of such trust, he never went beyond the surface of those with whom he dealt. With the exception of computer related subjects, Shareef didn’t read much. However, he always maintained the basic requirements of Islam, such as: avoiding the Haram, drugs, illegal relationships and the like. However, he always had an excellent
relationship with individuals of other faiths. Some of his closest friends were Christians. His family Doctor was Jewish. The life style of constant travel which he and his family had had made him receptive to other cultures and customs. The years he lived in the UK, made him accustomed to the Western life style. Thus, moving to Canada was not a shock to him.
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Two years ago, Shareef decided to take the trip of Hajj (Pilgrimage). He went to Saudi Arabia with fellow Canadian Muslims. It was a great experience for him. In his own words; it re-assured him of the equality and the good nature of all people. In the trip, as per his friends, he saved the life a cat that was wondering hungry in the streets and insisted to have it to stay with them in the hotel room. Shareef had, for that matter, collected seven cats from the shelters around Toronto to prevent putting them to sleep. He kept them all in his house in Streetsville until the time the RCMP ambush took place. They did not care to keep them inside which resulted in loosing 4 of them. Shareef’s main concern for the first few weeks was to emphasize to his family the necessity of trying to find the lost cats.
Every one who knows Shareef agrees that he is not the person to commit any wrong doing of the sort. Simply, he is not the one that is capable of doing any wrongdoing that involves any kind of endangering human life.
Shareef and his mates have been in a solitary confinement, with no communication with any one for 23.5 hours a day, for the last year. Enduring such torture is something that they combated with their belief in justice, in this life and the hereafter. Shareef’s amazing sense of humor has always been a crucial factor in making life in such hardship some how still acceptable.
