Rashad Hussain is an American attorney, diplomat, and professor, who served as Associate White House Counsel, Ambassador to Muslim countries as U.S. Special Envoy of President Barack Obama to the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), and the U.S. Special Envoy for Strategic Counterterrorism Communications. Hussain has also served on the National Security Council and in the Department of Justice as a trial attorney and a criminal and national security prosecutor. In his role as Envoy to the OIC, the second largest intergovernmental body after the UN, Hussain traveled to numerous countries and international gatherings, served as a foreign policy advisor, and met with foreign leaders and Muslim communities around the world. His position, "a kind of ambassador at large to Muslim countries was created by President George W. Bush," and the Washington Post described Hussain as member of the President Obama's "spiritual cabinet."
Upon appointing the 31-year old White House attorney as one of the youngest posted American ambassadors and highest ranking Muslim American officials Obama stated: "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 Quran, he is a respected member of the American Muslim community, and I thank him for carrying forward this important work."
Hussain has also been actively involved in international religious freedom and counterterrorism efforts, and his appointment as Special Envoy for Strategic Counterterrorism Communications was announced by President Obama at a White House Summit in 2015. Hussain, who has been named one of the world's 500 most influential Muslims, outlined a strategy for countering terrorist propaganda emphasizing a shift to non-governmental messaging, helped develop messaging centers in the UAE, Nigeria, Malaysia, and in Saudi Arabia, and helped set up the framework for the U.S. Global Engagement Center.
