

MARK KEVIN LLOYD
Religious Freedom Advisor
2020-2021
NEW USAID RELIGIOUS-FREEDOM ADVISER HAS HISTORY OF ANTI-ISLAM COMMENTS
May 27, 2020
Four days after the Orlando terrorist attack that same June, he shared a meme saying potential gun buyers should be forced to eat bacon. In another post, Lloyd wrote that “those who understand Islam for what it is are gearing up for the fight,” the AP reported. Those post are no longer public, but Lloyd’s Facebook account as of Tuesday still shows public posts where he accuses Barack Obama of ties to the Muslim Brotherhood and says people who believe Islam is a peaceful religion don’t understand history.
“No one with a history of spewing hatred and bigotry has any place helping to lead one of our government agencies,” House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Eliot L. Engel (D-N.Y.) told me. “It’s especially outrageous that someone with a track record of Islamophobia would be put in a role dealing with religious freedom.”
TRUMP’S NEW ‘RELIGIOUS FREEDOM’ ADVISER AT USAID ONCE CALLED ISLAM A ‘BARBARIC CULT’
May 28, 2020
The new religious freedom adviser at the U.S. Agency for International Development once called Islam a “barbaric cult” and shared a meme that said people should be forced to eat bacon before purchasing a gun, among other racist posts. Those sentiments are dangerous, and he needs to step down, several Muslim civil rights groups said in a letter Thursday.
Mark Kevin Lloyd, a former Virginia field director for President Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, started at USAID on Tuesday. The Associated Press first reported on the Islamophobic posts in 2016. This week, The Washington Post confirmed his new position at the agency and found additional posts linked to Lloyd’s Facebook page where he spread more anti-Muslim comments and memes, including stating that people who believe Islam is a peaceful religion don’t understand history.
It’s not altogether surprising to Muslim groups that the Trump administration would hire someone who posted bigoted statements against Muslims; organizations already raised warnings about other officials and, of course, the president himself. But it’s alarming that the pattern extends to Lloyd’s role at USAID, the agency responsible for administering civilian aid across the world.
USAID’S NEW ‘RELIGIOUS FREEDOM ADVISOR’ SPENT YEARS BASHING ISLAM
May 28, 2020
In May of 2015, a man who this week became a “religious freedom advisor” in the Trump administration shared an article celebrating the oppression of Muslims in China.
It was one of many posts published by Mark Kevin Lloyd — a Tea Party activist, political consultant and new Trump administration official — warning of the dangers of Islam. Over the years, Lloyd has called the world’s second-largest religion a “barbaric cult,” described it as “violent,” and said then-President Barack Obama was sympathetic to “extremist Muslim convictions.”
Now, Lloyd will become an adviser in the U.S. Agency for International Development, reportedly picked personally by its acting head.
USAID RELIGIOUS ADVISER APPOINTEE MADE HARSH ANTI-ISLAM COMMENTS AND WARNED OF VIOLENCE IF TEA PARTY FAILED IN 2010 ELECTIONS
Lloyd's appointment has previously come under scrutiny. The Washington Post first reported in a May op-ed on his new role, shining a light on Lloyd's past Islamophobic comments, which included falsely linking former President Barack Obama to the Muslim Brotherhood, a transnational organization that advocates for the application of radical Islamist teachings in all aspects of society, and writing that those who think Islam is a peaceful were ignorant to the history of the religion.
A USAID spokesperson defended some of Lloyd's post in response to the Washington Post, noting Lloyd's comments "were in reference to radical Islam, not Islam." The Associated Press reported in 2016 that Lloyd called Islam a "barbaric cult" and said that the religion was "violent in its doctrine and practice" when Lloyd worked as a Trump campaign staffer in Virginia.
July 6, 2020
THE INSIDE STORY OF USAID'S TUMULTUOUS YEAR
January 6, 2021
...and Mark Kevin Lloyd, a religious freedom adviser who described Islam as a “barbaric cult.”