Washington D.C., December 20, 2021 - On behalf of the American Muslim Institution (AMI), we are excited and welcome two historic events last week for the American Muslim community. Firstly, we welcome the passage of Combating International Islamophobia Act by the U.S. House of Representatives on December 14, 2021. Once passed by the U.S. Senate, the law would establish the position of Special Envoy within the U.S. State Department to monitor and combat Islamophobia, and summarize the incidents of state-sponsored Islamophobic violence around the world in the Department's annual human rights reports. We hope the U.S. Senate will promptly vote to approve the bill passed by the House of Representatives so it may be sent to the White House for President Biden's signature.
In addition, in a bi-partisan vote on December 16, 2001, the U.S. Senate voted to confirm the nomination of Mr. Rashad Hussain as Ambassador at Large for International Religious Freedom. He is the first Muslim to be nominated and confirmed to this position.
We applaud the bipartisan vote by the U.S. Senate to confirm Mr. Rashad Hussain, as the next Ambassador at Large for International Religious Freedom. He is highly qualified for the position and we are looking forward to working with him.
“We are encouraged by the recent actions of the U.S. Congress and the Biden Administration for these two landmark actions and look forward to continuing our efforts to build a more inclusive society willing to tackle the challenges of combating Islamophobia and racism”said Amb. Islam A. Siddiqui, President of AMI.
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For further information, please contact:
Shahid Rahman: 202-559-8566
