In a first, Indian-American Rashad Hussain was nominated by US President Joe Biden as the Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom. If approved by the Senate he will be the first Muslim to head US diplomacy for advancing religious liberties.
41-year-old Rashad Hussain is Director for Partnerships and Global Engagement at the National Security Council. He previously served as Senior Counsel at the Department of Justice’s National Security Division, said a White House statement.
During the Obama Administration, Rashad served as US Special Envoy to the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), for Strategic Counterterrorism Communications, and Deputy Associate White House Counsel.
Hussain, who has a law degree from Yale University and a master’s in Arabic and Islamic Studies from Harvard University, has also worked with the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee.
Though Hussain was born in Wyoming and was raised in Plano, Texas; he has roots in India. Hussain’s father, a mining engineer, moved from Bihar, India, to Wyoming in the late 1960s. A few years later, during a visit to India, he married Hussain’s mother, now an obstetrician in Plano.
He graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, then enrolled at Harvard University to pursue a master’s degree in Arabic and Islamic studies. During his graduate school, he cemented his interest in government, and he returned after completing his degree to work on the House Judiciary Committee.
The US state department states that the Office of International Religious Freedom promotes universal respect for freedom of religion or belief for all as a core objective of US foreign policy.
“We monitor religiously motivated abuses, harassment, and discrimination worldwide, and recommend, develop, and implement policies and programs to address these concerns,” it further says.
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