WASHINGTON (CNN) -- An American Muslim, appointed new U.S. envoy, headed off Monday with the goal of repairing the battered image of the United States in the Muslim world.
Sada Cumber, special envoy to the Organization of the Islamic Conference, hopes to improve U. S. image.
Sada Cumber, a Pakistani native, is the new special envoy to the Organization of Islamic Conference, a caucus of 57 Muslim nations.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said at a reception for conference countries at the State Department that Cumber will help the United States explain itself to the Muslim world.
Rice said Islam is an important part of the American fabric of life. "Our growing Muslim population is a great and welcome addition to our country," she said at a gathering of diplomats from conference member countries at the State Department.
Cumber, an entrepreneur living in Texas, was most recently chairman and CEO of SozoTek, a wireless imaging company. He said he plans to travel extensively and use his business background and experience to build bridges between the United States and the Muslim world.
"As an American Muslim, I believe I am in a unique position to promote dialogue," he said before leaving Washington for an Organization of Islamic Conference meeting later this week in Senegal. The Jeddah-based conference is the world's largest pan-Islamic group.
President Bush announced his intention last June to appoint an envoy to the conference, but took his time in making an appointment.
"The core of his mission is to explain to the Islamic world that America is a friend, is a friend of freedom, is a friend of peace, that we value religion," Bush said last month when he formally announced Cumber's appointment. "It's an important job, there is a lot of misperceptions about America and Sada is going to be a part of our effort to explain the truth." E-mail to a friend 
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