Rageh - A Somali Scud Stud

" Don't let it hold you back but come at it another way" - Rageh Omar. Rageh Omar - Somali journalist who turned the British into coach potatoes with his 9 o'clock dispatch from a burning Baghdad during the Iraqi war.

Rageh is a true nomad from a prominent Northern Somali family from Hargeisa. He was born in Mogadishu in 1967 and moved to Britain when he was 2 years old.

A graduate of Oxford, he graduated in history. When he finished his university, he started work at the black newspaper The Voice in London and then joined the BBC. He was then posted to Jordan prior to moving into Iraq.

It was here that he become an instant war celebrity where his dispatches moved the markets, circulated throughout the news world and ordinary people were glued to this flak-jacketed golden boy. The New York Post dubbed him the Scud Stud in reference to the Scud missiles that were criss-crossing a region devastated by both crude and sophisticated weaponry so graphically reported by Rageh.

One never to shun his roots, Rageh never misses a chance to talk about the crisis in his country of origin, the fact that some of his relatives suffered during the civil war, his Islamic faith and his frustration with the West that it has marginalized the Middle East and Africa and is losing its influence with the people.

After the war, he declined to be an anchor at the BBC and moved to Aljazira where his programs gained international acclaim. These included reports on Iran, Islam in America, Darfur, Somali children gangs in the UK and other programs on Asia, Africa and Latin America. He also airs a weekday documentary called Witness.

Rageh recently published a book - Only Half of Me: Being a Muslim in Britain. According to one book review, it is the profoundly moving account of being a Muslim in Britain: the author's own childhood and his attempt to straddle the world of his parents and that of his own, Western generation. Before that, he published Revolution about the Iraqi war.

Rageh is a family man, married to the daughter of a British baron. They have 3 children.

He is a true Nomad. And his advise to all nomads is - Let nothing hold you back!