THIS WEEK IN DC - Biden unveils his Economic team and nominates Janet Yellen for Treasury Secretary; and more.  

THIS WEEK IN DC - Biden unveils his Economic team and nominates Janet Yellen for Treasury Secretary; Congress readies for its busiest “lame duck” session in memory; Moderna approaching FDA for emergency authorization; Upon hearing oral arguments, Supreme Court appears wary of Trump administration’s effort to exclude undocumented immigrants from Census; Biden announces his administration’s new all-woman and ethnically diverse Communications Team.
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IN THIS ISSUE
1. Feature Story: The Assassination of Diplomacy;
2. MPAC hosts a panel discussion on Muslim integration into French secular society;
3. MPAC’s own Prema Rahman and Baqir Mohie El-Deen pen analyses on vaccine distribution and US-Iran diplomatic relations;
4. 35% of Muslims voted for Trump — next week, guests from CAIR National and Youssef Chouhoud join us to break down the exit poll results.

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FEATURED ISSUE

The Assassination of Diplomacy; Prospects for Peace with Iran

M Baqir Mohie El-Deen analyzes the implications of the assassinations in Iran.
Last week, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh was assassinated in Tehran, Iran. Nobody has claimed responsibility for the attack that took the life of the academic physicist and alleged father of Iran’s nuclear program. However, Iran’s Foreign Minister Javad Zarif drew a connection between the attack and last week’s meeting between Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. All three parties have denied involvement. History often repeats, and we remain concerned that assassinations of foreign officials may escalate into global conflict just as they once led to the first World War.

Read the full analysis → ([link removed][UNIQID]#FeaturedHeader)

This Week at MPAC's D.C. Bureau
Last week, MPAC hosted a panel discussion between Muslims in France. ([link removed][UNIQID]) Our conversation touched on the various issues affecting Muslim integration into French secular society.

On Tuesday, MPAC hosted Asma Uddin, Esq., a legal scholar who focuses on issues of religious freedom, for our Qur’an class. We delved into some of the issues brought up by the SCOTUS’ recent decision to lift restrictions on Orthodox Jewish congregations in New York.

With vaccine approval, we face a new dilemma: who will be the first in line for vaccination? Prema Rahman contributes an Islamic perspective to the ethical debates on COVID-19 vaccine distribution. ([link removed][UNIQID])

GOOD TO KNOW
* Earlier this week, President Trump threatened to veto the NDAA, the United States’ defense policy legislation, unless Congress included a repeal of section 230 in the measure. Section 230 is a measure, originally passed in a completely separate bill, which protects online companies such as Facebook and Twitter from lawsuits over content posted on their platforms. Politico has more on the internal dynamics here ([link removed][UNIQID]) .
* The UK became the first country to approve the Pfizer and BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine for mass rollout. The BBC has more here ([link removed][UNIQID]) .
* Earlier this week, a bipartisan Senate group sought to break through partisan gridlock by introducing a $908 billion stimulus plan. The Washington Post provides coverage here ([link removed][UNIQID]) .
* The French Interior Minister announced that France would investigate dozens of mosques suspected of ‘separatism’. Reuters staff covers the development here ([link removed][UNIQID]) .
* Iran rejected the terms for reviving the nuclear deal set by President-Elect Biden. BBC explores the internal dynamics in greater depth here ([link removed][UNIQID]) .


This Week In History

On December 1, 1988 Benazir Bhutto was named Prime Minster of Pakistan, becoming the 1st female Prime Minister of a Muslim country;
On December 3, 1847 Frederick Douglass published the first issue of his newspaper "North Star";
On December 4, 765, Jafar al-Sadiq, the 6th Shi’i Imam and progenitor of the Ja’afari School of Thought, died at 63;
On that same day in 2017, the United States Supreme Court voted in favor of the third iteration of President Trump’s infamous Muslim Ban.

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