Omar is listed on the University’s website as a graduate teaching assistant of Arabic and the managing editor of the undergraduate journal “Artifacts.” He received his Bachelors Degree in translation and multiple Masters Degrees in Libya. He secured his PhD in English Education, Linguistics and Translation Studies while at the University of Missouri from 2008-2013. The Mizzou website still lists him as Adjunct Instructor of Arabic in German & Russian Studies.
Omar is accused of attacking the teenager by pulling her down the stairway by the hair and striking her in the face after seeing her with a hijab.
Notably, in an edition of “Artifacts,” Omar wrote and Editor’s Introduction that said “It is very hard for some people to be away from their own culture because they find themselves confined to the deep-rooted beliefs and customs they acquired and learned from the communities in which they were born and raised.” He may be a case in point but his “confinement” will now be more concrete if convicted.
It is always more disconcerting to see someone not only with advance degrees but actually teaching at a university commit such acts of violent intolerance and orthodoxy. Omar himself is an “artifact” of orthodoxy in believing that he had the right to physically punish a girl for wanting to go to school without a veil.