Speak Free’s Marwa Fadol spoke with Dr. Omar Mahmood about living Islam in the modern world when he was in Calgary in November 2011.

Dr. Omar Mahmood was born and raised in Southern California. He completed his undergraduate studies at the University of California Los Angeles where he double-majored in Psychobiology and Arabic. He then traveled overseas to Yemen to study Islamic Sciences in the traditional institute known as Dar al-Mustafa. His studies focused on jurisprudence (fiqh), Arabic grammar, and sciences of the heart. He returned to the States and attended graduate school in Michigan where he completed a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology at Wayne State University. He is currently employed at the University of California, San Diego and serves as an advisor to MYNA (Muslim Youth of North America). He is active in efforts to promote the development of Islamic identity in Muslim youth through spirituality, counseling, recreation, and the arts.