page_title: List of American Muslims
section_title: Activism and politics
hierarchical_section_title: List of American Muslims / Activism and politics
caption_attribution_description: Meeting in the Oval Office, Dr. Zalmay Khalilzad, U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan, presents President George W. Bush an Afghan ballot from the first democratic election in Afghanistan Oct. 18, 2004. Despite the threat of terrorists attacks, about 8.4 million people voted in the election.
context_page_description: This is an incomplete list of notable Muslims who live or lived in the United States.
context_section_description: Huma Abedin – aide to United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton; served as traveling chief of staff during Clinton's campaign for the Democratic nomination in the 2008 presidential election
  Saqib Ali – served as delegate to the Maryland House of Delegates, elected in 2006, represented the 39th District
  Tahir Ali – first Pakistani American elected as a National delegate-at-large (R) from Massachusetts, 1992
  Arif Alikhan – former appointee to the Obama Administration where he served as Assistant Secretary for Policy Development at the United States Department of Homeland Security; former Deputy Mayor of Homeland Security and Public Safety for the City of Los Angeles; visiting Professor of Homeland Security and Counterterrorism at the National Defense University's (NDU) College of International Security Affairs in Washington, DC
  Nihad Awad – National Executive Director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations
  André Carson – Congressman from Indiana
  Shamila N. Chaudhary – US government policy adviser
  Robert D. Crane – former foreign policy advisor; author
  Sada Cumber – first US envoy to the Organisation of the Islamic Conference
  Keith Ellison – first Muslim congressman from Minnesota
  George Bethune English (1787-1828) – American adventurer, diplomat, soldier, and convert to Islam.
  Ibrahim Hooper – National Communications Director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR)
  Mansoor Ijaz – hedge fund manager and venture capitalist involved in Pakistan–United States relations and peace efforts surrounding the Kashmir conflict
  Arsalan Iftikhar – human rights lawyer, global media commentator, and author of the book Scapegoats: How Islamophobia Helps Our Enemies & Threatens Our Freedoms
  Noor Al-Hussein – anti-nuclear weapons proliferation advocate and former Queen consort of Jordan
  Hakim Jamal – civil rights activist; Member of the Nation of Islam but converted to traditional Islam after the assassination of his cousin Malcolm X.
  Zalmay Khalilzad – former US Ambassador to the United Nations; former U.S. Ambassador to Iraq and Afghanistan
  Yuri Kochiyama – Japanese American activist who converted to Sunni Islam from Protestantism in 1971
  Umar Lee – Activist and Writer
  Edina Lekovic – Communications Director of the Muslim Public Affairs Council
  Gholam Mujtaba  –  chair of the Pakistan Policy Institute, a think tank dedicated to improve the US-Pakistan relationship
  Ilhan Omar – One of the first two Muslim women elected to Congress.
  Farah Pandith – Special Representative to Muslim Communities for the US Department of State; official advisor to President Obama on Muslim matters
  Zainab Salbi – co-founder and president for Women for Women International
  Betty Shabazz (also known as Betty X) – civil rights activist and educator; widow of Malcolm X
  Ilyasah Shabazz – social activist and daughter of Malcolm X
  Malcolm Shabazz – activist and grandson of Malcolm X; Murdered during a labor rights tour in Mexico
  el-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz (also known as Malcolm X) – human rights activist, civil rights activist, public speaker and Black Muslim minister; Joined the Nation of Islam in 1952, before converting to Sunni Islam in 1964.
  Azadeh Shahshahani – human rights attorney and past president of the National Lawyers Guild
  Saghir "Saggy" Tahir – New Hampshire State Representative; the only elected Pakistani American in the Republican Party; re-elected in 2006 for a fourth term to represent Ward 2, District 9 in his home town of Manchester
  Shirin R. Tahir-Kheli – White House appointee at various senior posts in the executive branch and the State department during five Republican administrations.
  Rashida Tlaib – One of the first two Muslim women elected to Congress.
  James Yee – former U.S. Army chaplain with the rank of Captain
  Elias Zerhouni – Director, National Institutes of Health
caption: Former UN ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad with President George W. Bush at the White House
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