Mazen Basrawi
Senior Advisor for Public Engagement; Director, Partnerships and Global Engagement, National Security Council
Mazen Basrawi serves as a Senior Advisor and White House Liaison to American Muslim Communities for the Office of Public Engagement and a Director for Partnerships and Global Engagement for the National Security Council. He is on detail from the Department of Justice Civil Rights Division, where he has served for the last 14 years. Previously, he served as Counsel to then Assistant Attorney General Tom Perez in the Civil Rights Division where he developed and implemented policy in the areas of post 9-11 backlash, disability rights, and the civil rights of Native Americans. Notably, he litigated United States v. Rutherford County, Tennessee, guaranteeing the right of the Islamic Center of Murfreesboro to open its mosque despite intense opposition, which became the subject of a CNN documentary entitled “Unwelcome: the Muslims Next Door.” He is a highly distinguished graduate of the University of Virginia and the University of California, Berkeley Law School.
