President Joe Biden’s August 10 appointment of Imam Mohamed Magid the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom has been hailed by Commission chair Nurey Turkel as contributing “breadth and depth of experience on a range of international religious freedom issues” to the group.
A native of Sudan, Magid is executive imam of the All Dulles Area Muslim Society Center in Sterling, Virginia, former president of the Islamic Society of North America and current co-president of Religions for Peace.
CAIR Deputy Director Edward Ahmed Mitchell said Magid’s “long and stellar record of humanitarian and interfaith work will make him a valuable asset to the commission’s work.”
Magid told Religion News Service that he looks forward to working with the commission “to advance religious freedom around the globe and to be the voice of the voiceless.”
“It is indeed a divine privilege to work together with others to ensure that every person has the right to freely practice their beliefs,” he posted on Facebook.
Appointed in 2011 by President Barack Obama to serve on the Department of Homeland Security’s Countering Violent Extremism Working Group, Magid trained and advised FBI and other federal personnel. He worked with the United Nations Development Program to train imams dealing with extremism and violence against religious minorities in West and East Africa. And he was among the global leaders of different faiths who crafted the 2016 Marrakesh Declaration to promote dialogue and understanding.
“I hear other people’s perspective and then we can come away with a common understanding of what’s unique on an issue,” he told Georgetown University’s Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs in a January 2022 interview. “The challenge is to ensure that out of our discussion or conference somebody will say, ‘We want to take this to the next level.’”
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From its beginnings, the Church of Scientology has recognized that freedom of religion is a fundamental human right. In a world where conflicts are often traceable to intolerance of others’ religious beliefs and practices, the Church has, for more than 50 years, made the preservation of religious liberty an overriding concern.
The Church publishes this blog to help create a better understanding of the freedom of religion and belief and provide news on religious freedom and issues affecting this freedom around the world.
The Founder of the Scientology religion is L. Ron Hubbard and Mr. David Miscavige is the religion’s ecclesiastical leader.
For more information visit the Scientology website or Scientology Network.
