Reuters
New York Times
2/13/2010
DOHA, Feb 13 (Reuters) — U.S. President Barack Obama said on Saturday he was naming a special envoy to a top Islamic body to further Washington’s cooperation with the Muslim world.
Obama told a U.S.-Islamic World Forum in the Qatari capital Doha in a recorded video message that he was naming White House official Rashad Hussain as special envoy to the 56-member Organisation of the Islamic Conference.
“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,” Obama said.
In a speech in Cairo last June, Obama called for a “new beginning” in ties between the United States and Muslims, many of whom felt targeted by the “war on terror” launched by President George W. Bush after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, and by the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq…
…”And as a hafiz of the Koran, (Hussain) is a respected member of the American Muslim community, and I thank him for carrying forward this important work,” Obama said in his message to the Doha meeting, using the term for someone who has mastered and memorised the Muslim holy book…
The entire article is at the NYT.
