WASHINGTON (AFP) – US Senator John Kerry appealed Tuesday for cementing US ties with the Muslim world with a two-way exchange of professionals like teachers, city planners, and public health workers.
Kerry, who chairs the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee, introduced a bill calling for a three-year pilot program to draw such workers from 4-7 Muslim-majority countries to be picked by the US State Department.
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Fellows would be 21-40 years old and could also come from civil society, including journalists, leaders of religious-based organizations, or employees of nonprofit organizations, Kerry's office said in a statement.
Kerry said he was modeling his plan on the academic exchanges pioneered by the late US senator William Fullbright after World War II.