Esam Omeish

Dr. Esam Omeish was born and raised in Tripoli Libya. He "is best known in Virginia state politics for having been removed from a Virginia Immigration board by then-governor Tim Kaine, a Democrat, after a video surfaced of Omeish endorsing violent jihad against Israel."

He is the father of Abrar Omeish, a member of the Fairfax County School Board in Virginia and co-chair of Bernie Sanders' Bernie Sanders Presidential Campaign 2020.

Endorses Violent jihad against Israel

From the Center for Security Policy^[1]

The elder Omeish is best known in Virginia state politics for having been removed from a Virginia Immigration board by then-governor Tim Kaine, a Democrat, after a video surfaced of Omeish endorsing violent jihad against Israel.

Education/MSA

From his personal website: (archived link)^[2]

He attended Georgetown University. Dr. Omeish achieved a straight A average his first semester and was inducted to the dean’s list. He continued his studies at Georgetown graduating with a double major in International Relations and Biology in 1989 while gaining admission to the Georgetown University School of Medicine as the only foreign student gaining admission in a pool of over 6000 candidates.

While at Georgetown, Dr. Omeish established the Muslim Student Association chapter there becoming its first president and developing it to become nominated to the prestigious award of the most active club on campus. He also helped establish and chaired the MSA Council for the Washington DC metropolitan area MSA’s during his tenure at Georgetown.

During that period Dr. Omeish also served as the US East Zone representative of National MSA, eventually becoming the President of National MSA for two years in the early 1990’s. His term in MSA witnessed the emergence and excellence of MSA as a campus-based Muslim student organization re-emerging after its slow years in the late 1980’s in the shadow of ISNA which inherited the community work on the national scene at that time. It also witnessed the much needed integration of the indigenous as well as international members of the youth of the Muslim community. Dr. Omeish served in the national Board ( Majlis Al-Shura) of ISNA as a representative of MSA for two years.^[3]

MAS

Subsequently and after the emergence of Muslim American Society in 1993, Dr. Omeish served as the first chairperson of its Youth Department and subsequently served in its executive committees. He has been involved in national affairs of MAS since its inception and has held different regional and local leadership capacities. He has been a member of the elected general assembly of MAS several times and served as a president of the chapters of New Jersey and Washington DC prior to being elected to the national board of Trustees of MAS during the term of 2000-2004.

Dr. Omeish was re-elected to the board of Trustees by the highest number of votes of the elected membership of the general assembly of MAS and subsequently, elected as the president of MAS by the newly elected board of trustees of MAS national for the term of 2004-2008.

Dr. Omeish also participated and served in other community activities and projects. He was the vice president of Dar Al-Hijrah Islamic center in Northern Virginia and is currently a board member. He was the chairman of the board of the Islamic Center of Passiac County in NJ. He is the chairman of the Board of the Muslim Community Clinic, a non-profit clinic providing free medical care to the needy and uninsured. He is a former member of the board of the Islamic American University and a president and founder of a Human rights advocacy group in Washington DC.

He represented the Muslim community at large in major meetings in the White House, meeting President Bill Clinton in 1999, Congress and various departments of the US government.

After completing his medical training from Georgetown University School of Medicine in 1993, Dr. Omeish completed his Surgery training at the UMDNJ Hospitals and is currently in private practice in Northern Virginia where he is recently chosen as the chief of the division of General Surgery at INOVA Alexandria Hospital and elected to the Medical Executive committee , one of the area’s larger hospitals. Dr. Omeish has treated over 5000 patients over 14 years of surgical practice and training. He was recently awarded the prestigious award for the “ Outstanding physician of the year award for 2007” at Alexandria Hospital. He is married and has four children. His wife, Dr. Badria Kafala, is a scientist and holds a doctorate in molecular biology from Montreal University. They live in Fairfax, Virginia close to the National headquarters of MAS.^[4]