Image: Graeme Sloan/Sipa USA
Last week, US President Donald Trump appointed Mark Kevin Lloyd as the Religious Freedom Advisor to the USS Agency for International Development (USAID). The move drew sharp criticism from several American Muslim groups given Lloyd’s history of allegedly making anti-Muslim statements including a social media post where he called Muslims a “barbaric cult”.
In a statement, Muslim Advocates, a national civil rights organization working in the courts, in the halls of power and in communities to halt bigotry in its tracks, called for Lloyd’s removal. Madihha Ahussain, Muslim Advocates Special Counsel for Anti-Muslim Bigotry, said, “Especially during a global pandemic, it is a cruel joke for USAID, an agency tasked with overseeing foreign aid and development efforts, to name an anti-Muslim bigot as a religious freedom adviser. Mark Kevin Lloyd should be removed from his post immediately. Someone who has broadcast this kind of hateful and dangerous rhetoric should have no place in our government and certainly should not be advising a federal agency on religious freedom.”
She added, “Unfortunately, Lloyd’s appointment at USAID fits a long-standing pattern. As we have seen through the Muslim Ban, the continued employment of anti-Muslim activists like Stephen Miller and Ken Cuccinelli and even President Trump’s own attacks on Muslim elected officials, it is clear that anti-Muslim bigotry has a home in the Trump administration. Regardless, this administration claims to value religious freedom, and if that is the case, then they should remove Mark Kevin Lloyd from his position and replace him with someone one who doesn’t have a documented history of attacking an entire religion.”
Other organisations including Emgage Action, CAIR, the Muslim Public Affairs Council and the Asian American Advocacy Fund have also decried Lloyd’s appointment.
Wa’el Alzayat, CEO of Emgage Action, a Muslim American advocacy organisation called for Lloyd’s removal asking, “How could one properly serve as USAID’s Religious Freedom Advisor while espousing a horrifyingly Islamophobic track record?”
In a statement, Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) Government Affairs Director Robert McCaw said, “CAIR calls on USAID Acting Administrator John Barsa to immediately fire Religious Freedom Adviser Mark Kevin Lloyd because of his publicly-professed anti-Muslim views,” adding, “There is no room in any government position — let alone a position meant to protect religious freedoms – for those who promote bigotry. Lloyd is clearly unfit to serve a diverse, multi-faith society.”
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