By Adelle M. Banks
Religion News Service
WASHINGTON (RNS) Sen. Barack Obama’s presidential campaign has appointed a Chicago lawyer as its national coordinator for Muslim affairs.
Mazen Asbahi represents Muslim and Arab American businesses in his corporate law practice, reported Politico.com.
A community blog on the Obama campaign’s Web site announced July 25 that Asbahi will serve as national coordinator of Arab American affairs and be based at the campaign’s Chicago headquarters.

The move was welcomed by the Muslim Public Affairs Council. “The inclusion of a Muslim American voice in the presidential campaign reinforces the principle of pluralism in the electoral process,” the council said, urging Sen. John McCain to take similar steps.
In the Obama campaign announcement of Asbahi’s new assignment, blogger Amanda Scott wrote: “The Obama campaign is working hard to connect with Americans of every faith and ethnicity in an unprecedented grass-roots movement to build an America rooted in compassion and a government that, in the senator’s words, `reconciles the beliefs of each with the good of all.”‘
Representatives of Obama’s campaign did not immediately respond to requests for further comment.
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