He attended Mt. San Antonio College before transferring to UCSD. His funeral was held Tuesday, Feb. 12 in Westminster, Calif. Friends created a Facebook page in his honor on Monday, Feb. 11, and 784 people had joined the page by Wednesday, Feb. 13. Moaddel was a member of UCSD’s Muslim Student Association. A family friend, Ehsaan Mesghal, said the family decided not to conduct an autopsy. They do not suspect foul play.
Moaddel was a spoken word poet. Mesghal said Moaddel was planning to perform at the MSA West Conference 2013 at UCSB this weekend, Feb. 15 to Feb. 17. They are working on using his allotted time as a memorial in his honor.
“Ali was an excellent spoken word poet and always used his time onstage to shed light on injustice around the world and the plight of others,” Mesghal wrote in an email to the Guardian.
