Mosul Eye

Reviews / Votes

"When our city, Mosul, fell silent-when the law itself had no voice and disorder ruled Mosul-there were those who worked, quietly and faithfully, to document what was happening and to preserve the record intact, against the day when justice would return.

As members of the judiciary in Nineveh, we regard Mosul Eye, by Omar Mohammed, as far more than a personal account. It is an essential document-one that exposes the nature of the crimes ISIS committed, grounded in verified evidence and observable fact.

What Omar Mohammed achieved is a work of serious documentation that helped safeguard a critical part of this period's memory, and its contribution to the pursuit of justice was already apparent before liberation was complete.

We had the privilege of witnessing this work take shape, and we supported it in the belief that the judiciary's duty does not end at settling disputes-it extends to defending truth and ensuring that memory survives.

This book honors the victims of Mosul. It tells future generations that what happened here will not be forgotten, that justice does not expire, and that Mosul will always be a city of learning and law.

We offer this testimony in recognition of this remarkable effort, and in memory of those who gave their lives to restore Mosul."

-Honorable Judge Raed Al-Muslih, president of the Nineveh Court of Appeal, Supreme Judicial Council of Iraq

"I first learned of the blog Mosul Eye during the darkest period of ISIS's reign over northern Iraq, when the world was searching for any reliable voice from inside the city. That voice-anonymous then-belonged to Omar Mohammed, a young historian who refused to let his city be destroyed in silence. In Mosul Eye: A Clandestine Scholar's War Against Isis, he gives us a meticulous and unflinching work of witness. May it inspire a new generation to defend the freedom and transparency he risked everything to preserve."

-Hillary Rodham Clinton

"What Omar Mohammed accomplished defies the ordinary categories of courage. Through his blog, a sentinel in the night, he transmitted to the world fragments of truth torn from the darkness and the fog of propaganda. I cannot help but think of the clandestine historians of the Warsaw Ghetto, who, at the heart of annihilation, documented daily life under the Nazi yoke. Their archives, buried in milk cans, already carried this tragic intuition: they might not survive, but their words had to. In Mosul Eye, Omar belongs to that rare and precious lineage of those who refuse to let the night have the last word. Perhaps this is, in the end, the most silent and most profound victory: that, in the face of the will to erase, a voice persisted. And that this voice inspires the renaissance."

-Audrey Azoulay, director-general of UNESCO

"Reading Mosul Eye was a revelation. Omar's courage exposed the horror of ISIS and the struggle for survival in a world of vicious cruelty. It was unique and powerful. This book belongs alongside those chronicling the terrors of the last century. He did it in real time and at huge personal risk. It serves as a reminder that courage can stand against evil, and must, if we are not to see such terror return. Omar is extraordinary, and his work and courage will long outlive those whose hatred enslaved Mosul."

-The Rt Hon Tom Tugendhat, MBE, VR, MP - Conservative MP for Tonbridge, former security minister, former chair of the UK Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee, and a commissioner of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission

"There is physical courage. There is intellectual courage. And there is moral courage. All of these were in evidence in Mosul under the brutal rule of the so-called Islamic State-Da'esh in the contemptuous Arabic acronym. Omar Mohammed, the man behind Mosul Eye, the anonymised blog that recorded so much of what was happening-the daily life, the fear, the atrocities, the casual sadism of the men and women who thought God had commanded them to become blood-soaked criminals, the stubborn resistance of ordinary people-has now written his account of that period. It is an incredible story: of courage, hope, and the power of human solidarity in the midst of catastrophe. The Abrahamic religions tell us that we stand on the edge of an abyss. This book reminds us, as we need reminding constantly, not just of that truth but also that we are not God; no truly divine revelation can command savagery, and only faith in our shared humanity can ultimately save us."

-Sir John Jenkins KCMG LVO, former British Ambassador to Saudi Arabia; former director-general for the Middle East, UK Foreign Office

"Mosul Eye belongs among the manuscripts I carried out of the fire. What Omar Mohammed has given Mosul will outlast her captors, as our manuscripts have outlasted theirs."

-Mar Najeeb Michaeel Moussa, O.P., Chaldean Archbishop of Mosul

"This is, to paraphrase Dickens, A Tale of a City and a Man. The city? Mosul, in Northern Iraq, under the dire rule of ISIS between June 2014 and June 2017. The man? Omar Mohammed, a.k.a. Mosul Eye, a local scholar who, at tremendous risk to himself, single-handedly set up an intelligence network and diligently recorded ISIS's horrid exactions. Yet rather than let himself be instrumentalized by this or that intelligence service, Omar Mohammed made all this precious information public, for the good of all. In so doing, not only did he hasten the demise of ISIS's rule in the city, but he also gave hope to its crushed people. And when the day of reckoning finally came for ISIS, and the people of Mosul found themselves caught in the crossfire, his network further helped save scores of innocent lives. A most moving and well-written personal account by someone who has experienced the events firsthand."

-Percy Kemp

"A man of undaunted courage with the foresight to organize and prepare, and the hindsight to bring understanding amidst chaos. Omar is a treasure to Mosul, his city, and to Iraq, his country."

-U.S. Central Command

"Omar Mohammed has shown enormous personal courage in the war against ISIS. He risked his life every day to tell the terrible truth of ISIS's occupation of Mosul through Mosul Eye. Its stories were inspiring. I am honoured to have been able to work with Omar."

-Martyn Warr OBE, head of the Counter-Daesh Communications Cell in the UK's Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office

"In the summer of 2014, as the UN Security Council was locked in intense and complex debates over how to navigate the unprecedented crisis of ISIL's rise, one mysterious name kept surfacing: Mosul Eye. On the ground and under constant threat of death, Omar Mohammed was the lone voice providing the world with 'evidence from hell on a problem from hell.' As the only eyewitness risking his life to testify from within the heart of the caliphate, he unmasked the chilling banality of ISIL's evil. I read his reporting regularly-on more than one occasion it was the clearest report I had on the brutality of ISIL. This book is a harrowing history of those crimes and a powerful testament to the courage of a single human spirit determined to let the truth survive."

-Dr. David Scharia, UN Security Council ? Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate (CTED)

"When ISIS seized Mosul in 2014, the city went dark. Independent reporting all but vanished. Then a blog appeared, written anonymously by a historian of Mosul, shining a light on what was happening within his occupied city. In Mosul Eye, Omar Mohammed delivers an extraordinary firsthand account of life under ISIS's brutal occupation-the story of a man who refused to let his city's suffering go unrecorded, chronicling ISIS's crimes in real time at enormous personal risk. It is a story of courage, humanity, and hope."

-Emma Sky OBE, director of Yale's International Leadership Center, author of The Unraveling: High Hopes and Missed Opportunities in Iraq

"Omar Mohammed is the bravest and most admirable man I have met-and this is a book fully worthy of him. It is at once a thriller and a meditation; a warning and a reassurance; a story that is both as dark as the darkest night and radiant with the light of hope."

-Tom Holland, historian and broadcaster; author of Dominion: How the Christian Revolution Remade the World

"Paeans to the Paris and Warsaw resistance to the Nazis are fundamental components of twentieth-century historical canon. Omar Mohammed's chronicle stands alongside those tales by revealing the moral defiance and extraordinary human bravery of Iraqis in the face of Islamic State's terror."

-Margaret Coker, author of The Spymaster of Baghdad

"Mosul-a city unlucky in so many ways-is fortunate to have a chronicler as sensitive and humane as Omar Mohammed. This book is an act of witness."

-Graeme Wood, contributing writer at The Atlantic; author of The Way of the Strangers: Encounters with the Islamic State

"For years, Omar Mohammed-known as Mosul Eye-risked everything to document life under ISIS. More than a witness-a voice for the voiceless. His book is a powerful lesson in history: with a scholar's rigor and a journalist's keen eye, it immortalizes one of humanity's darkest passages. In the name of truth."

-Delphine Minoui, Le Figaro

"Mosul in the hands of ISIS was a black hole of history. For the two years of the siege, we journalists knew only its borders, defined by the Iraqi troops slowly advancing to liberate it. Inside, you could sense the fanaticism, the violence, but the city of the Islamic State was a mystery, an unknowable elsewhere. And then we discovered Mosul Eye-that anonymous figure who was writing its daily stories on social media, and about whom you asked yourself: is he telling the truth? And then: does he really exist? One evening, I remember reading his account of how, his eyes full of the horror he had witnessed, he would shut himself in his room and, in secret, with headphones on so as not to be heard, listen to classical music-Mussorgsky, Pictures at an Exhibition, one of the favorite pieces of my father, who had recently died. Music, beauty, in order to endure. And all at once that pseudonym-whose real name and face I did not know whether I would ever come to know-was not a figure in the war's chronicle, a more or less reliable source, a piece of testimony. That citizen of Mosul was one like us. Like me. His story is a source of inspiration and an extraordinary adventure."

- Riccardo Chartroux, RAI TV

"When Omar Mohammed's hometown, Mosul, was overtaken by ISIS in 2014, he began documenting everyday life under the brutal regime. What he only realized much later was that his archive chronicles not only life during war, but the destruction of an ancient cosmopolitan city made up of buildings with people containing memories. Mosul Eye is not the ultimate account of Mosul, because the city still rests on the banks of the Tigris River. But the book gives life to the famous saying by the Jewish sage Tarfon: 'It is not your duty to finish the work, but neither are you free to neglect it.'"

-Kathrine Tschemerinsky, culture editor, Weekendavisen

"Considering the risk to the author's life, it is astonishing that this book, Mosul Eye: A Clandestine Scholar's War Against ISIS, was ever written. Through his pseudonym Mosul Eye, Omar proved not only that resistance was possible but also that ISIS's actions were being observed and documented. His blog gave the people of Mosul something they thought they had lost-hope. It was an inspired gift. Now the world can read this remarkable story."

-James Bluemel, director of Once Upon a Time in Iraq

"Mosul is a layered city that has weathered trials and tribulations. This account is a personal record, one among many that exist, that can salvage a city when its very voice is being silenced."

-Sultan Sooud Al Qassemi, founder of Barjeel Art Foundation

"For too long, the best accounts on the ISIS group relied on distant analysis and captured documents. This is less than ideal; our understanding was deprived of authentic local voices. The exception to this was the mysterious Mosul Eye, now known to us as the distinguished Omar Mohammad, native of Mosul. This book fills the gap in the story of one of the most dangerous and diabolical insurgencies in history. I'm grateful for his work in telling the rest of the story."

-Dr. Craig Whiteside, coauthor of The ISIS Reader, US Naval War College

"It was 2014, and I followed a Twitter account that people said gave good updates on the situation in Mosul. Only then did it dawn on me that there were real people still inside Mosul who were trying to survive. When Omar was safe and went public, I knew I wanted to share his story, so I reached out and asked if he would speak to my students-a few minutes later he called. His story is a beautiful portrayal of human strength and courage, and yet so raw and full of pain. It offers a stark warning of how quickly religious radicalization breeds extremism, and the danger of ignoring messianic political messaging. It is a lesson in history not only because it tells the story of how Mosul survived in brutal detail, but also because it shows that history is never forgotten."

-Dr. Tova Norlen, the Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA)

"In 2014, ISIS committed genocide against the Yezidis in Iraq. Many of the atrocities against Yezidi captives occurred in Mosul. In the aftermath of the Yezidi Genocide, we wanted to see national solidarity and support for Yezidis from other communities. One of the reliable allies we found was Omar from Mosul. He spoke at our virtual Yezidi Genocide commemoration events. Omar has never hesitated to highlight the crimes committed against Yezidis and the need for Iraqis, including the Iraqi state, to do better for our people. Many neighbors turned on Yezidis in 2014 and committed unspeakable atrocities. We need more common humanity and respect in Iraq, across religions and ethnicities. We are happy to have Omar as a friend and ally."

-Pari Ibrahim, the Free Yezidi Foundation

"Omar Mohammed's work reminds us that cultural resistance is not abstract: it is lived, breathed, and paid for at the highest personal cost. In a city where music was silenced, instruments destroyed, and artists persecuted, his determination to document and ultimately revive Mosul's musical life stands as one of the most profound acts of defiance of our time. Music is not a luxury. It is the deepest expression of what it means to be human: our identity, our dignity, our refusal to be erased. By preserving its memory through the darkest years of occupation, and nurturing its return after liberation, Omar Mohammed safeguarded not only a tradition, but the living soul of a city that refused to disappear."

-Paolo Petrocelli, founder and president, EMMA for Peace (Euro-Mediterranean Music Academy for Peace)

"The passion, courage, and empathy he showed were outstanding. During my life in the city of Mosul, in that underestimated city, it was rare for me to feel connected to someone's philosophy. The Jurassic changes the city witnessed shaped the community in many ways, creating a complex formula that made it seem impossible to plant a seed and expect it to grow. Omar, the Ghost, Mosul Eye-the dream planted tree seeds that have grown shaded, housed, and fed many.

An ancient tree with deep roots seeks wisdom, and high branches seek light. Sharing many beliefs, crossing many paths with him made me realize that whatever crazy ideas could sound, Omar would push them further and make them happen.

The world owes him a lot!"

-Ameen Mokdad, violinist and composer, Mosul

"I first met Omar when he was forced to flee Mosul, afraid for his life, but perhaps even more afraid for the erasure of his beloved city from public memory. This book shows us the weight and incomparable value of documenting a place, a history, and a life through destruction, displacement, and rebuilding. To cherish a city like Omar cherishes Mosul is a love we should all be so lucky to have-and we are fortunate to bear witness through his writing."

-Sarina Simon Rosenthal, Scholars at Risk - New York University