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A pillar of Halifax’s Muslim community is being remembered this week after being killed in a cycling accident in Halifax
Nouman Ali, a longtime professor in Dalhousie University’s civil and resource engineering department, died in hospital this past weekend. Police have said Ali was seriously injured after a person driving a pickup truck opened their door into the path of his bicycle on July 17.
The driver was later issued a summary offence ticket, said Halifax Regional Police.
Since news of his death broke, multiple community organizations in the city have shared tributes to Ali, including the Ummah Masjid & Community Center in Halifax, where he’d been involved for more than 30 years.
In March, the Ummah Society awarded Ali its Distinguished Community Service Award for his years of volunteer work at the mosque and his consistent advocacy for the people of Gaza.
In an email sent to faculty and students of Dalhousie’s engineering department, acting dean Yi Liu wrote that Ali will be remembered most for “his unwavering commitment to the people around him.”
Mentor, colleague and volunteer
Originally from Iraq, Ali made Halifax his home when he immigrated to Canada in the 1980s, said Hany El Naggar, a longtime friend and colleague at Dalhousie.
For nearly 40 years, El Naggar said, Ali was a mentor for countless students, many of whom saw him as a father figure. Ali was also a stalwart colleague, always game to talk through ideas and offer support to others, he added.
An avid cyclist, Ali and his bike were a familiar sight around the city, especially in recent years at rallies and marches advocating for the people of Gaza and Palestine.
He was the kind of person you’d find “volunteering wherever the help is needed,” said El Naggar.
He said Ali’s death is a tragedy, one that he hopes serves as a wake-up call for drivers to be more aware of cyclists.
“He’s a father, he’s a husband, he’s a colleague,” said El Naggar. “We lost a lot.”
Look before opening car doors
At the Ecology Action Centre in Halifax, which works to encourage more people to get on the road by pushing for better cycling infrastructure, the news of Ali’s death has been met with devastation.
“For all cyclists, it’s kind of a nightmare come real,” said Ashleigh Boers, associate director of community programs.
“It’s one of those instances that you, as a cyclist, consider every day when you leave the house, that there’s a multitude of things that can happen to you on your commute, and when it actually happens in reality it’s devastating.”
Drivers need to be more careful, she said, noting that while they often get frustrated when cyclists take up space in the centre of the road, they’re usually doing it to avoid getting hit by open car doors.
Boers said drivers and passengers should check for cyclists before getting out of any vehicle by practising what’s known as the Dutch reach.
‘Dutch reach’ method for opening doors
How it works is simple, she said. You simply open your door with the hand farthest from the handle. A driver, for example, would use their right hand to open their door.
“It’s forcing you to look out the window and look at your mirror and turn around to see if anyone is coming,” said Boers.
On Monday, a funeral service was held for Ali at the Kearney Lake Masjid, where many people gathered to pay their respects to a friend, family member, and colleague.
“He was great in all eyes,” said El Naggar. “And you [could] really feel this yesterday … Everyone was just talking about their experiences with him and how he was positive and how he helped them in one aspect or another.”
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