US Senate confirms Dilawar Syed, highest-ranking Muslim official nominee

The US Senate has confirmed the country's highest-ranking Muslim nominee, putting an end to more than two years of delays by Republicans.

On Thursday, Dilawar Syed was confirmed with a 54-42 vote as deputy administrator of the Small Business Administration, making him the highest-ranking Muslim official in the US government.

US President Joe Biden nominated Syed, a Pakistan-born businessman, in March 2021, and since then Republican members have been hot showing up for votes, thereby preventing it from leaving the committee.

Reasons given for the majority of the party's reluctance to vote through the nominee have been the SBA's payments to abortion providers and for what they described as Syed having been a member of an anti-Israel group. Democrats, however, contended that the resistance to Syed's confirmation was due to anti-Muslim sentiment. 

"Dilawar was our board member and when he was nominated by the president, he stepped off our board. When it came time for the small business committee to vote him out of committee, they boycotted their votes," Wa'el Alzayat, CEO of Emgage, a Muslim civic engagement organisation, told The New Arab.

"Membership with Emgage was problematic. They said we were anti-Israel because on our website we refer to the Israeli occupation and we support American citizens' right to boycott," Alzayat said.

This year, with the new Congress, Biden renominated Syed, who has enjoyed the full support of Senate Democrats from the start.

"Eventually, what happened at the end of the day was it took Democrats winning back the Senate, meaning they wouldn't have to wait for Republicans," Alzayat said. 

A tactic the Republican members used, he said, was to try to pit the Jewish community against Syed, an effort he said didn't work, following a multi-faith coalition that came out in support of the nominee.

"They failed. A big chunk of the Jewish community came out in support of Dilawar because of our engagement with these communities and recognising that we shouldn't be divided," he said. 

After 26 months, Senate Democrats are lauding Syed's confirmation as deputy administrator at the SBA, a post that has been vacant for nearly five years.

“Small businesses across the country will benefit from Mr Syed's confirmation. The vacancy caused harm to small business owners throughout our nation who depend on SBA to be fully staffed in order to access capital, contracting opportunities, and entrepreneurial development training,” said Ben Cardin, Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship Chair, said in a public statement. 

"There's no better person to serve the interests of small business than someone who was a successful business owner himself," tweeted Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer. "Now, he's the highest-ranking Muslim-American official in the executive branch."