BIDEN NAMES INDIAN-AMERICAN TO HEAD RELIGIOUS FREEDOM OFFICE

  • 31/07/2021

President Joe Biden has nominated Rashad Hussain, an Indian-American lawyer and diplomat, as ambassador-at-large to head the state department’s international religious freedom office, which, among other things, publishes an annual report on the state of religious freedom around the world.If confirmed by the Senate, Hussain will be the first Indian-American to head the body, created in 1998 to promote respect for religious freedom as part of US foreign policy.

Hussain is currently serving as director for partnerships and global engagement at the National Security Council. His previous stints in the government include a term as senior counsel at the justice department’s national security division, Obama administration’s special envoy to the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), special envoy for strategic counterterrorism communications, and deputy associate in the White House counsel.Hussain also “spearheaded efforts on countering anti-semitism and protecting religious minorities in Muslim-majority countries”.

Hussain earned a J.D. from Yale Law School, and master’s degrees in public administration at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. He has also taught at Georgetown’s school of foreign service.President Biden has nominated and appointed more than 60 Indian-Americans to senior positions in his administration, from Vivek Murthy, the surgeon general, to Vinay Reddy, who heads the president’s team of speechwriters, to Kiran Ahuja to head the office of personnel to Vanita Gupta, number three at the justice department.

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