Fox News is coming after Rashad Hussain, recently named by the Obama Administration as envoy to the OIC and previously working as Deputy Associate Counsel in the White House. The charge is allegedly sympathetic comments (or more accurately criticisms of the prosecution of) Sami al-Arian that were attributed to Hussain when he was a law student in 2004.
The publication that originally attributed the quote to Hussain later changed the story on its website and claims the quotes were actually those of Al-Arian’s daughter and not Hussain’s. The original author of the story, who’s also working for the administration, claims she was always very careful about attributing quotes and would not have made such an error.
The right wing anti-Muslim bloggers will be working to find some other connections, such as to MSA or ISNA, which they will find very suspicious.
Mr. Hussain seems to be a dream as a Muslim appointment as he is a hafidh of Qur’an but at the same time seems to have been ambitious enough from a young age to try his best to avoid doing anything controversial.
It will be interesting to see if these kind of flimsy charges blow over quickly or if they become an issue. If they do become an issue, the message to politically ambitious American Muslims will be crystal clear, you must separate yourself from the Muslim community completely from high school.
