I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 959
To establish in the Department of State the Office to Monitor and Combat
Islamophobia, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
FEBRUARY4, 2025
Ms. O
MAR(for herself, Ms. SCHAKOWSKY, Ms. TLAIB, Mr. CASAR, Ms. DEAN
of Pennsylvania, Mr. G
RIJALVA, Ms. JACOBS, Mr. JOHNSONof Georgia,
Ms. M
CCOLLUM, Mr. POCAN, Ms. SA´NCHEZ, and Mr. MCGOVERN) intro-
duced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign
Affairs
A BILL
To establish in the Department of State the Office to
Monitor and Combat Islamophobia, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Combating Inter-4
national Islamophobia Act’’. 5
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SEC. 2. AUTHORIZATION FOR ESTABLISHMENT OF OFFICE 1
TO MONITOR AND COMBAT ISLAMOPHOBIA. 2
Title I of the State Department Basic Authorities Act 3
of 1956 (22 U.S.C. 2651a et seq.) is amended by adding 4
at the end the following new section: 5
‘‘SEC. 66. MONITORING AND COMBATING ISLAMOPHOBIA. 6
‘‘(a) O
FFICE TO MONITOR AND COMBAT 7
I
SLAMOPHOBIA.— 8
‘‘(1) E
STABLISHMENT.—Not later than 120 9
days after the date of the enactment of this section, 10
the Secretary of State shall establish within the De-11
partment of State an Office to Monitor and Combat 12
Islamophobia (in this section referred to as the ‘Of-13
fice’). 14
‘‘(2) H
EAD OF OFFICE.— 15
‘‘(A) S
PECIAL ENVOY FOR MONITORING 16
AND COMBATING ISLAMOPHOBIA .—The head of 17
the Office shall be the Special Envoy for Moni-18
toring and Combating Islamophobia (in this 19
section referred to as the ‘Special Envoy’) who 20
shall be appointed by the Secretary of State. 21
‘‘(B) A
PPOINTMENT OF SPECIAL ENVOY .— 22
The Secretary may— 23
‘‘(i) if considered appropriate by the 24
Secretary, appoint the Special Envoy from 25
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among officers and employees of the De-1
partment of State; and 2
‘‘(ii) allow any such officer or em-3
ployee appointed as Special Envoy to re-4
tain the position (and the responsibilities 5
associated with such position) held by such 6
officer or employee prior to such appoint-7
ment. 8
‘‘(b) P
URPOSE OFOFFICE.—The Office shall be re-9
sponsible for the following: 10
‘‘(1) Monitoring and combating acts of 11
Islamophobia and Islamophobic incitement that 12
occur in foreign countries. 13
‘‘(2) Coordinating and assisting in the prepara-14
tion of that portion of the reports required by sec-15
tions 116(d)(9) and 502B(k) of the Foreign Assist-16
ance Act of 1961 (22 U.S.C. 2151n(d), 2304(k)) re-17
lating to an assessment and description of the na-18
ture and extent of acts of Islamophobia and 19
Islamophobic incitement. 20
‘‘(3) Coordinating and assisting in the prepara-21
tion of that portion of the report required by section 22
102(b)(1)(A)(viii) of the International Religious 23
Freedom Act of 1998 (22 U.S.C. 24
6412(b)(1)(A)(viii)) relating to an assessment and 25
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description of the nature and extent of acts of 1
Islamophobia and Islamophobic incitement. 2
‘‘(c) C
ONSULTATIONS.—The Special Envoy shall con-3
sult with domestic and international nongovernmental or-4
ganizations and multilateral organizations and institu-5
tions, as the Special Envoy considers appropriate, to carry 6
out this section.’’. 7
SEC. 3. INCLUSION IN DEPARTMENT OF STATE ANNUAL RE-8
PORTS OF INFORMATION CONCERNING ACTS 9
OF ISLAMOPHOBIA IN FOREIGN COUNTRIES. 10
(a) I
NCLUSION INANNUALCOUNTRYREPORTS ON 11
H
UMANRIGHTSPRACTICES.—The Foreign Assistance 12
Act of 1961 (22 U.S.C. 2151 et seq.) is amended— 13
(1) in section 116(d) (22 U.S.C. 2151n(d))— 14
(A) in paragraph (11), by striking ‘‘and’’ 15
at the end; 16
(B) in paragraph (12), by striking the pe-17
riod at the end and inserting ‘‘; and’’; and 18
(C) by adding at the end the following new 19
paragraph: 20
‘‘(13) wherever applicable, a description of the 21
nature and extent of acts of Islamophobia and 22
Islamophobic incitement that occurred during the 23
preceding year, including descriptions of— 24
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‘‘(A) acts of physical violence against, or 1
harassment of, members of the Muslim commu-2
nity, and acts of violence against, or vandalism 3
of, Muslim community institutions, including 4
schools, mosques, and cemeteries; 5
‘‘(B) instances of propaganda in govern-6
ment and nongovernment media that attempt to 7
justify or promote racial hatred or incite acts of 8
violence against members of the Muslim com-9
munity; 10
‘‘(C) the actions, if any, taken by the gov-11
ernment of that country to respond to such vio-12
lence and attacks or to eliminate such propa-13
ganda or incitement; 14
‘‘(D) the actions taken by such government 15
to enact and enforce laws relating to the protec-16
tion of the right to religious freedom of mem-17
bers of the Muslim community; and 18
‘‘(E) the efforts of such government to 19
promote anti-bias and tolerance education.’’; 20
and 21
(2) in section 502B (22 U.S.C. 2304), by— 22
(A) redesignating the second subsection (i) 23
(relating to child marriage status) as subsection 24
(j); and 25
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(B) by adding at the end the following new 1
subsection: 2
‘‘(k) I
NFORMATION CONCERNING ACTS OF 3
I
SLAMOPHOBIA INFOREIGNCOUNTRIES.—The report re-4
quired by subsection (b) shall include, wherever applicable, 5
a description of the nature and extent of acts of 6
Islamophobia and Islamophobic incitement that occurred 7
during the preceding year, including descriptions of— 8
‘‘(1) acts of physical violence against, or harass-9
ment of, members of the Muslim community, and 10
acts of violence against, or vandalism of, Muslim 11
community institutions, including schools, mosques, 12
and cemeteries; 13
‘‘(2) instances of propaganda in government 14
and nongovernment media that attempt to justify or 15
promote racial hatred or incite acts of violence 16
against members of the Muslim community; 17
‘‘(3) the actions, if any, taken by the govern-18
ment of that country to respond to such violence and 19
attacks or to eliminate such propaganda or incite-20
ment; 21
‘‘(4) the actions taken by such government to 22
enact and enforce laws relating to the protection of 23
the right to religious freedom of members of the 24
Muslim community; and 25
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‘‘(5) the efforts of such government to promote 1
anti-bias and tolerance education.’’. 2
(b) I
NCLUSION IN ANNUALREPORT ON INTER-3
NATIONALRELIGIOUSFREEDOM.—Section 102(b)(1)(A) 4
of the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 (22 5
U.S.C. 6412(b)(1)(A)) is amended— 6
(1) in clause (vi), by striking ‘‘and’’ at the end; 7
(2) in clause (vii)(II), by striking the period at 8
the end and inserting ‘‘; and’’; and 9
(3) by adding at the end the following new 10
clause: 11
‘‘(viii) wherever applicable, an assess-12
ment and description of the nature and ex-13
tent of acts of Islamophobia and 14
Islamophobic incitement that occurred in 15
that country during the preceding the year, 16
including— 17
‘‘(I) acts of physical violence 18
against, or harassment of, members of 19
the Muslim community, acts of vio-20
lence against, or vandalism of, Muslim 21
community institutions, instances of 22
propaganda in government and non-23
government media that incite such 24
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acts, and statements and actions re-1
lating thereto; and 2
‘‘(II) the actions taken by the 3
government of that country to re-4
spond to such violence and attacks or 5
to eliminate such propaganda or in-6
citement, to enact and enforce laws 7
relating to the protection of the right 8
to religious freedom of members of 9
the Muslim community, and to pro-10
mote anti-bias and tolerance edu-11
cation.’’. 12
(c) E
FFECTIVEDATE OFINCLUSIONS.—The amend-13
ments made by subsections (a) and (b) shall apply on the 14
date that is 180 days after the date of the enactment of 15
this Act. 16
Æ
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