President Barack Obama on Feb. 13 appointed Rashad Hussain, currently working as a legal counsel at the White House, to be the U.S. Special Envoy to the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC).

Rashad Hussain

Making the announcement via video conference to the annual gathering of the U.S.-Islamic World Forum, the president said Hussain’s appointment was part of “deepening” the relationship with Muslim majority countries, which he had outlined in his 2009 Cairo speech.
Hussain has had extensive interaction with American Muslim communities since the mid 1990s. He has degrees from both Yale and Harvard and is a hafez — a Muslim who has memorized the Qur’an.

Hussain once clerked for U.S. Court of Appeals Judge Damon Keith.

The Organization of the Islamic Conference promotes Muslim solidarity and has 57 member states accross four continents. Hussain is deputy associate counsel in Obama’s White House staff.