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Mormon Stories Podcast

656: Omar and Nancy Kader - The Journey of a Palestinian Boy Raised in Utah and His Amazing Wife Pt. 4

Mormon Stories Podcast

Dr. John Dehlin

Religion & Spirituality

4.65.2K Ratings

🗓️ 25 September 2016

⏱️ 59 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Dr. Omar Kader was born in Provo, Utah to Palestinian immigrants. HIs father was a devout Muslim and a disabled World War I vet who owned a successful Provo fruit farm. During Omar's childhood he and his family were called the n-word by fellow Provoans, but fought to earn the respect of his community. Omar and his father were close friends of Dr. Hugh Nibley, who liked to practice his Arabic skills with Omar's dad.

In this epic multi-part series, we hear several inspiring stories, including:

  • How Omar escaped Palestine after being sent back there by his father to prevent him from marrying a Utah woman.
  • How Dr. Hugh Nibley fought to help Omar enroll in Brigham Young University.
  • How Omar met, courted, and married his amazing wife Nancy - a brilliant Mormon girl from Ogden, UT (this courtship included his conversion to the LDS faith). We also touch on what it was like to enter into a multi-cultural marriage in Utah during the 1960s.
  • Omar's draft into the Vietnam War (serving in Germany)
  • How Omar and Nancy risked expulsion from BYU for fighting against the Vietnam war and for supporting the BYU Student Democratic Party during the Earnest L. Wilkinson administration -- and how Hugh Nibley came to their rescue.
  • Omar's experiences obtaining a Ph.D. in International Relations at USC, along with his 10 year career at BYU wherein he faced both considerable racism and heroic support from certain BYU faculty and administrators.
  • Nancy's work with the Democratic party in Utah, which included interactions with actor Robert Redford.
  • Omar's decision to leave BYU and move to Washington D.C.
  • Omar's work as a lobbyist for Arab-Americans, which included meetings with Yasser Arafat and King Hussein of Jordan.
  • The part Omar played in helping BYU obtain the land to build the BYU Jerusalem center, which he later grew to regret.
  • Omar's scorching critiques of LDS apostles Ezra Taft Benson and Jeffrey R. Holland.
  • Omar's work as a successful businessman in Washington D.C. against all odds as an Arab-American.
  • Nancy's trial of faith after befriending Kate Kelly in her Virginia ward, and then watching her friend get excommunicated.
  • Where Omar and Nancy now stand with the LDS church, and with matters of faith.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

The

0:01.0

Mormon Stories Podcast is a production of the Open Stories Foundation.

0:11.9

All donations to Mormon Stories are fully tax deductible and go directly towards keeping

0:16.3

the podcast alive and towards building a community of support for Mormons like you.

0:21.3

To support the podcast or to join the community, please become a monthly subscriber today at

0:26.6

MormonStories.org.

0:27.6

Hello, welcome back to part 4 of our interview with Omar Cater and Nancy Stowe.

0:33.6

Good job, Stowe.

0:37.6

Yes, Stowe.

0:39.6

Stowe Cater.

0:42.0

We have talked about a bunch of great stuff and we are going to finish by talking about

0:47.3

their faith journeys.

0:48.9

So Omar, let's start with you.

0:53.1

As I think back to episode 1, part 1, you were never really doctrinally spiritually

1:00.8

even necessarily converted at least at first.

1:04.2

Talk a bit about your faith journey and your leadership sort of a scent that then at some

1:12.4

point kind of went awry.

1:14.4

Just maybe give us a few minutes on that just so we can get a feel.

1:17.9

Did you ever feel like you had a testimony?

1:19.7

Did you ever pray for one?

1:22.0

And talk about that.

1:24.6

When I first started, my main theme was family.

...

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