(HuffPost) The federal government would have a dedicated, high-ranking official monitoring Islamophobic incidents worldwide under a new bill being introduced Thursday by Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.).
The special envoy for monitoring and combatting Islamophobia, which would be embedded within the State Department, would monitor anti-Muslim incidents in foreign countries and document state-sponsored Islamophobic violence in the State Department’s annual human rights report. The report, which carries significant diplomatic weight, does not routinely monitor such incidents.
The bill ― titled the Combating International Islamophobia Act and co-sponsored by Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), Mark Pocan (D-Wis.) and Andy Kim (D-N.J.), among dozens of other Democrats ― comes at a time when anti-Muslim violence continues to rise. This summer, CNN reported the group was working on this legislation, and HuffPost has learned it will be introduced Thursday.
