Jabir "Jay" Ali and Mohamed Al-Nahyan grew up together in the Overbrook area of metropolitan Ottawa, Ontario. This was the hood, a place teeming with minority types, especially Somalis and Arabs, and the rest of the Canadian capital turned its nose on the area and those who dwelled there. This was a no-go area as far as 'decent capital dwellers' were concerned. The sort of place that decent folks did not care to set foot in...
In the old days, Jay and Mohamed practically ran the place. The two of them were thick as thieves, and used to get into a lot of trouble. At eighteen, though, the two lifelong best friends took radically different paths. Jay Ali's estranged father, Ahmed Ali, came back into his life, and encouraged him to walk away from a life of petty crime, and take a different path. That's why Jay Ali walked away from the game, and enrolled at Algonquin College, to study business. He'd always had an entrepreneurial mindset, it's what helped him become one of the top dealers in Overbrook, but this time, he was putting his skills to good use.
As Jay began his higher education journey, a lot of things became apparent to him. The difference between the men who wear business suits and run mega-corporations and the men who stand on street corners, selling dope, is quite simply opportunity. Both are ruthless, and driven to make money and advance at any cost, but the business guys went to college, and learned to do business the correct way. The street guys are just as driven, but rarely lived long enough to see the fruits of their labor no matter how hard they work. Jay Ali was determined not to become a statistic...
Mohamed Al-Nahyan on the other hand, loved the gangster lifestyle too much. Mohamed's parents, Lubna and Nasir Al-Nahyan emigrated to Ontario, Canada, from their hometown of Khor Fakkan, in the United Arab Emirates. A lot of folks in western society, swayed by what they heard of the wonders of fabulous Dubai, thought that all Emirati Arabs were filthy rich. This wasn't true. The Al-Nahyan clan were dead broke when they came to Canada, having fled their country because their assets had been seized as punishment for criticizing the reigning regime.
As immigrants in a strange new country, the Al-Nahyan family endured much hardship, and after the death of his father Nasir due to complications from diabetes, Mohamed became even wilder. He would get into fights, just to make a name for himself. Jay Ali, in his heyday, was known as the friendly neighborhood drug dealer, while Mohamed Al-Nahyan was a hard-ass. The young Emirati-Canadian thug wanted to be known as the toughest man on the Overbrook block, a mindset that was soon to land him in deep trouble.
One night, Mohamed Al-Nahyan went out drinking at the Honest Lawyer bar with his favorite Jamaican cutie, Stacy somebody. At the bar, some guy was apparently looking at Mohamed the wrong way, and the hot-headed young Emirati wasn't about to let it slide. Mohamed confronted the guy in question, a ginger-headed white dude, and they got into a tussle. One which ended with Mohamed thrusting his switchblade into the guy's gut. For this, Mohamed was arrested and, due to his priors, sentenced to ten years in a provincial correction center.
