Nasser Al Omar

Biography

Nasser al Omar is a Saudi preacher, and a member of the Muslim Scholars Association, a Muslim Brotherhood organisation headed by Yusuf Al Qaradawi, one of the preachers profiled by EMAN. He was born and raised in Al Moraidasiih, a Saudi village in the region of Qassim in 1952. In 1974, he graduated from Riyadh’s College of Sharia, he then attended Imam Muhammad bin Saud Islamic University and received a master’s degree from its Shariah faculty in 1974. In 1979, al Omar obtained a PhD from the same faculty. Al Omar started his academic career at the Department of the Quran and its Sciences in 1984. He was promoted to the rank of Associate Professor in 1989 and to Professor in 1993. During his career, al Omar occupied several positions within religious organisations in Saudi Arabia and abroad, including heading the International Commission for Holy Quran Meditation ( رئيس الهيئة العالمية لتدبر القرآن). The organisation advocates for a deep scientific and practical understanding of the Quran. His official biography says that he learned Islamic Studies from a number of prominent Salafi scholars, including Sheikh Abdul Aziz bin Baz, Sheikh Saleh al Ansari, and Saleh Al Skiti.

He is well known for his extremist scholar opinions about the West, Shia and women. In one of his articles, al Omar stated that according to Sharia, marrying young girls who have reached nine years is permissible. Al Omar is the author of one of the most anti-Shia treatises in Saudi Arabia, entitled “The Situation of the Rejectionists in the Lands of Monotheism”. The document, written in 1993, describes Shia as unbelievers and enemies of the community of Muslim believers. Furthermore, he opposed the Saudi government’s efforts to rewrite its religious school books to remove anti-jewish and anti-western teachings. The Saudi authorities arrested Nasser al Omar in August 2018, amid a wide campaign initiated by Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman to curb Wahhabi religious influence and reduce the political and social weight of Saudi religious leaders.

Evidence of Hate Speech/Incitement:

January 2018: Al Omar tweeted that participating in Christians’ celebrations of the new year is an insult to monotheism, weakness in ‘Al wala wal bara’ (loyalty and disavowal), humiliating subordination, and a psychological defeat.

April 2015: Al Omar tweeted “Sheikh of Islam (Ibn Taymiya) said: No enemy has come to fight Muslims with whom the Rafidha have not joined. History over the course of centuries has proven this. So have we learned who our enemy is?”

September 2013: In a Fatwa on his website, Al Omar forbids Muslims from entering churches, particularly on Sundays.

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Nasser al Omar calls Shia forces operating in Syria “Majus” (Zoroastrians), a propaganda word used against Iranians Shia to emply that they are not true muslims.