Dr. Omar Mohammed is a historian from Mosul, known only recently as the anonymous blogger ‘Mosul Eye.’ Through Mosul Eye, Omar set out to inform the world about life under the Islamic State in his city. He is the head of the Antisemitism Research Initiative within the Program on Extremism at George Washington University. He also hosts the podcast series “Mosul and the Islamic State,” which tells untold stories from inside the Islamic State’s reign of terror, the pursuit of justice in its aftermath, and the enduring struggle of the people of Mosul for a better future. Mohammed has been an outspoken advocate of Iraq’s religious and ethnic minority communities.

In 2026, he published Mosul Eye: A Scholar’s Clandestine War Againt ISIS. The book is a story of how a quiet scholar became the most elusive witness to one of the darkest chapters of the 21 st century, and how knowledge, discipline, and truth outlasted a terror state. ISIS hunted him relentlessly, promising to kill him in a manner ‘humanity had not yet discovered.’ But he survived, as did the archive he built. Only years later would he discover that his secret reports were being read not only by his neighbors and the world newspapers, but by governments, analysts, and intelligence agencies.

Mohammed teaches Middle East History, Cultural Heritage Diplomacy, and Counter Terrorism at Sciences Po University. His focus has now shifted to advocating social initiatives for the people of Mosul, including the international effort to re-supply the Central Library of the University of Mosul. Mohammed served as a senior consultant at UNESCO from 2018 to 2023. He has professional experience in cultural heritage project management. He has led several heritage projects in Iraq and the Middle East, including the Oral History of the Mosuli Jewish Community in Israel and the Oral History of Mosul in Iraq. Mohammed is also active in climate change activism, where he led the Green Mosul project to replant trees in his hometown, where he was exiled. He received his Ph.D. in Middle East and Ottoman History from EHESS in Paris, France, and holds an MA in Middle East History from the University of Mosul. He was named 2013 Researcher of the Year by Iraq’s Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research. His doctoral research explores history and historians in 19th and 20th-century Mosul. He now lives in exile in Europe.