Reconciliation in Action: Arab Rights Advocate Joins Homeland Security Advisory Panel

Building on the theme in President Obama’s Cairo speech of demonstrating respect for Islam by respecting U.S. Muslim communities, this morning Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano swore in Kareem Shora, the national executive director for the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, to a position on the Homeland Security Advisory Council, an outside-the-department group of national security experts that advises the secretary. (Members include 9/11 Commissioner Lee Hamilton and New York Police Commissioner Ray Kelly.) As far as I can tell, Shora is the first Arab rights or Muslim rights advocate on the panel.

At the swearing-in ceremony in Albequerque, Shora, who was born in Damascus, mentioned that he watched Obama’s Cairo speech with his immigrant father, who teared up when he heard Obama’s message of reconciliation.

“I’m here to add to the diversity of the council and glad for the opportunity to do so,” Shora said. Then he, and the rest of the panel, heard recommendations about how to guard against spillover violence from the drug gangs in Mexico.