Even though he ventured into politics and business leadership, he never lost his love for programming. He was a hacker at heart—first with respect to software, but eventually (metaphorically) hacking everything he came across. He always sought to break molds, find new ways of helping people, looking for solutions in what seem to be no-win situations. After enduring annoying stints on Southwest's no-fly list, he penned a public letter to the company's CEO that managed to get under his skin and break the logjam. And as San Carlos mayor, he made some difficult decisions that made a lot of people happy but some people very upset. He told me wearily that he had to break the status quo in order to make positive change happen. These were the qualities that made him a true leader.
He lived life to its fullest—attending storytelling festivals, indulging in sports (he was a die-hard Florida Gators fan and just last weekend had attended a San Francisco Giants game), collecting guitars (he had dozens of them, each signed by a famous rock star), being a skilled aviator, and most of all climbing the tallest mountains in each of the seven continents. (He had managed to do four of the seven at the time of his death.) He was on a first-name basis with the folks at a Redwood City cigar lounge, where his locker with "Big Kahuna" etched on the door held his favorite stogies. Last November, Omar officiated my wedding in Washington, D.C., and not content with just delivering a typical speech, he created a whole new ceremony—entirely American, yet entirely Islamic—showing everyone that Omar had already achieved that unified identity that too many of us still struggle for.
Today, hundreds of friends, family, and well-wishers will say goodbye to him as flags in San Carlos fly half mast, obituaries appear in Bay Area media, and the California State Assembly honors him before adjourning. And while the Muslim community loses one of its favorite sons, it also gains a role model for future generations of Muslim-Americans who have someone they can look at that shows them, definitively, how to be true to faith, country, and community while having a big smile on your face—and, if Mayor Ahmad has his way, while puffing away on a Cuban cigar.
Omar, you did it all, and you made it seem so easy.
This article has been reprinted with permission from AltMuslim.com.
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