Mosul Eye: A Scholar's Clandestine War Against ISIS - A Book Talk with Author Omar Mohammed

When ISIS seized Mosul in June 2014, a young historian named Omar Mohammed had planned to spend his life in archives, not in hiding from a death sentence. Within days of the occupation, he began secretly documenting life inside the terror state—executions, checkpoints, the destruction of ancient heritage, forbidden rumors—writing by generator light under a name no one knew. What started as a personal record became Mosul Eye, the most trusted source of information from inside ISIS-held Mosul, quietly read by neighbors, journalists, and intelligence agencies alike. A 2018 Yale World Fellow, Omar Mohammed joins us to discuss his new book Mosul Eye: A Scholar's Clandestine War Against ISIS, in conversation with ILC Director Emma Sky. About the Speaker Dr. Omar Mohammed is a historian of Mosul and the anonymous voice behind Mosul Eye, the clandestine blog he ran from inside ISIS-occupied Mosul from 2014, documenting the occupation at enormous personal risk. He is Director of the Antisemitism Research Initiative and Senior Research Fellow at the Program on Extremism, George Washington University, and teaches counterterrorism at Sciences Po Paris. He holds a doctorate in Middle East and Ottoman history from EHESS, Paris. He is a 2018 Yale World Fellow.