BIDEN NAMES INDIAN-ORIGIN DIPLOMAT TO HEAD RELIGIOUS FREEDOM OFFICE

WASHINGTON: US President Joe Biden on Friday nominated Indian-American lawyer and diplomat Rashad Hussain as ambassador-at-large to lead the state department’s international religious freedom office.

The office, 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 IndianAmerican to head the office created in 1998 to promote respect for religious freedom as part of US foreign policy.

He 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.

The White House said in the announcement that as special envoy, Hussain has worked with multilateral organisations such as the OIC and UN to expand partnerships on a whole range of issues, from education to international security to science and technology.

Biden also named Khizr Khan, a Pakistani-descent American, to the US commission on international religious freedom, a body which has been extremely critical of India, lately on the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), and has called for the administration to declare India a country of particular concern.