U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom

Christian Century, Sept 6, 2003

President George W. Bush has reappointed Richard Land, a prominent Southern Baptist leader, and named Archbishop Charles Chaput, conservative head of the Catholic Archdiocese of Denver, and Khaled Abou el Fadi, a UCLA professor of Islamic law, to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom.

The nine-member commission is a worlwide watchdog for religious liberty. It counsels Congress, the president and the secretary of state on matters of religious freedom and tolerance. Abou el Fadi, 39, the only Muslim member of the commission, is a noted critic of Saudi Arabia's strict brand of Islam called Wahhabism.