Researcher Khalid Omar Awarded Doctoral Degree

The Islamic University of Minnesota – Main Center witnessed, on the evening of Saturday, December 20, 2025, the academic defense of a PhD dissertation at the Department of Law, College of Sharia and Law, under the supervision of the Deanship of Graduate Studies and Scientific Research. The defense was held via the Zoom video conferencing platform.

The dissertation was submitted by researcher Khalid Mohammed Omar, a U.S. national, and was entitled “The Constitutional Responsibility of the State Regarding the Right to Non-Discrimination on Religious Grounds: A Comparative Study between the Ethiopian Legal Systems and Islamic Jurisprudence.” The study addressed a contemporary legal and constitutional issue with significant humanitarian and legislative dimensions, through a comparative analysis combining positive legal systems and Islamic jurisprudential references.

The examination committee consisted of a distinguished group of academic specialists. The dissertation was supervised and approved by Dr. Amir Khalifa, a faculty member at the Islamic University of Minnesota. The defense panel included Associate Professor Dr. Mohammed Shuaib Abdel-Maqsoud, Head of the Department of Law at the university (internal examiner), and Dr. Osama Mohammed Abdulfotouh, a faculty member at the Islamic University of Minnesota (external examiner).

The defense was held at 9:00 p.m. Makkah time and featured in-depth academic dialogue and rich methodological discussions, reflecting the importance of the topic and its constitutional and jurisprudential dimensions. These discussions contributed to enriching and evaluating the research in accordance with approved academic standards.

This academic event comes within the framework of the Islamic University of Minnesota’s commitment to supporting rigorous scientific research and promoting comparative studies that contribute to addressing contemporary constitutional and human rights issues.