Obama names Indian-American Muslim as Special Envoy to Islamic world

WASHINGTON: An Indian-American Muslim who is a product of the liberal, syncretic cultures of India and the United States has been appointed Washington’s special envoy to the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC), much to the delight of Indian-Muslims who see this as vindication of their plural and moderate ethos by the Obama administration.
The White House on Friday named Rashad Hussain, an Obama acolyte who is son of Indian immigrants from Bihar, as the US envoy to the 57–member OIC, following up appointments of several Indian-Americans, including at least two other Indian-American Muslims, to high level posts.
One of the appointees, Srinagar-born Farah Pandit, who is the State Department’s Special Representative to Muslim communities, arrived in New Delhi on Monday on a visit aimed at furthering Washington’s engagement with Muslims around the world. Obama has also named Dr Islam Siddiqui, an immigrant from Uttar Pradesh, as the Washington’s chief agricultural negotiator, although the nomination is currently held up in the Senate.
White House officials said that as Special Envoy to the OIC, Hussain will ''deepen and expand the partnerships that the US has pursued with Muslims around the world'' since Obama's speech in Cairo last June in which he reached out to the Islamic world.
''As an accomplished lawyer and a close and trusted member of my White House staff, Rashad has played a key role in developing the partnerships I called for in Cairo. And as a hafiz of the Qurân, he is a respected member of the American Muslim community, and I thank him for carrying forward this important work,'' Obama, whose middle name is also Hussain (which he gets from his father, although the President is a practicing Christian) said in a statement.
Born in Wyoming, Rashad Hussain grew up outside Dallas, Texas, where his parents still live. His father, Mohammad Hussain, is a retired mining engineer from Bihar, while his mother, Ruqaya, is a gynaecologist. His older sister, Lubna, is also a physician, while his younger brother, Saad, is a medical student. The accomplished Indian-American Muslim family offers a different perspective from the dark vision that fundamentalist, grievance-filled Muslims offer.
Hussain completed a bachelor’s degree in philosophy and political science, from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where his thesis was titled, “Assessing the Theistic Implications of Big Bang Cosmological Theory.” He also holds a Masters degree in Arabic & Islamic Studies from Harvard University, and got his J.D. from Yale Law School, where he served as an editor of the Yale Law Journal.
Between Harvard and Yale, he worked as legislative aide on the House Judiciary Committee, where he reviewed the USA Patriot Act and other bills. In January 2009, President Obama named him deputy associate counsel to the White House after he had served as a trial attorney at the US. Department of Justice.
Incidentally, Obama also has appointed at least three other Indian-American legal luminaries to administrative posts. He chose Preeta Bansal, 42, as Counsel and Senior Policy Advisor in the Office of Management and Budget, and Neal Katyal, 38 as Principal Deputy Solicitor General, the number two position in the Office of the Solicitor General in the Department of Justice. He also named Ferozepur-born Preet Bharara as the US Attorney for Manhattan.
But Rashad Hussain’s appointment was particularly sweet for Indian Muslims who have won high praise in the US (including from former President George Bush) for their liberal, syncretic values that contrast sharply with the dark vision of many of their co-religionists in the region. Bush often expressed admiration for the fact that India's 160 million-plus Muslims were largely immune to grievance-laden extremists types that proliferate in neighboring Pakistan, something which is constantly being challenged.
Hussain’s appointment delighted Indian-Americans, including one fellow Indian-American who was also in line for the job. ''Rashad is greatly influenced by the Indian ethos of pluralism and inclusiveness. As a Special envoy to the OIC, he will initiate a positive relationship between America and the Muslim nations, I am proud of his heritage; an Indian, Muslim and an American,'' said Mike Ghouse, a Dallas-based inter-faith activist from India who has known the Hussain family and who was also under consideration for the post.
Hussain’s appointment is also politically and diplomatically significant in the context of New Delhi’s own uncertain ties with the OIC. The OIC has not accepted India as a full-member it having the world’s second largest Muslim population after Indonesia, mostly on account of Pakistan’s historical insecurities and fears.
Pressed by Islamabad, the OIC some months back appointed Abdullah Bin Abdul Rahman Al Bakr, OIC's assistant secretary-general for political affairs, who is from Saudi Arabia, as the special envoy on J&K to examine the human rights issues. That few OIC countries, least of all Saudi Arabia, are well known for their protection of human rights was lost on the organization.
Hussain’s appointment now comes as a huge embarrassment for a militarized, army-dominated Pakistan, whose espousal of a militant, intolerant brand of Islam to cement its national security is increasingly being questioned in Washington. In fact, Pakistani officials have been deeply resentful of what they see as the growing ''Indian'' influence in Washington and Congressional circles and launched a crude, toxic propaganda against Indian-American serving in the administration.
In a vicious attack last week, a Pakistani newspaper accused Preet Bharara, the Obama-appointed US attorney in New York, of carrying out a witchhunt against Pakistanis in the US because of his ''ideological beliefs'' going back to the sub-continent’s partition days. The paper also alleged that Bharara appointed a ''like-minded controversial Indian who is also known for his hatred and venomous propaganda against Pakistan, Anjan Sahni, as Chief of the Terrorism and International Narcotics Unit soon after he assumed the charge of US Federal Attorney of New York.''
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