Ramadan At Trump's White House Is The Invite No Muslim Wants

[Singularity]

https://www.buzzfeed.com/hannahallam...5v#.btv7WRYxMY

Ramadan At Trump's White House Is The Invite No Muslim Wants

Controversy isn't new to Ramadan events at the White House, but under President Donald Trump there's a whole new level of political sensitivities.

Posted on May 24, 2017, at 12:19 p.m.

Hannah Allam President Barack Obama during the 2015 iftar dinner celebrating the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

Muslims don't know if President Donald Trump will carry on the tradition. For nearly a decade, Jihad Saleh Williams has served as a Ramadan wrangler for official Washington, keeping a spreadsheet to make sure there was no overlap as government departments planned events for the Islamic holy month.Saleh Williams, government liaison for the nonprofit Islamic Relief, saw his roster grow every year as more federal offices began holding iftars, the meal that ends the daily fast at sundown. Even non-US organizations such as the World Bank signed on. He’s especially proud of a celebration that drew 1,000 people to the US Capitol in 2009.Now, however, the Washington Ramadan scene is in the midst of what Saleh Williams politely calls “an off year.” Put more bluntly, the momentum he helped to build over eight years has ground to a halt under President Donald Trump, who has repeatedly bashed Islam and spread bogus claims about American Muslims.With Ramadan starting at the end of the week and no invitations yet, there’s a guessing game among Muslim political types: Will Trump continue the tradition of a White House iftar? And if he does, would anybody go?Not even Saleh Williams knows. He said he’s confirmed that the Pentagon’s annual ceremony is on, and there’s talk of a quiet State Department gathering for Muslim diplomats. The departments of Treasury and Agriculture haven’t ruled out dinners, but haven’t committed, either. Homeland Security is thinking about it.“The only one we don’t know about and don’t have a point of contact with is the White House,” he said with a sigh.Muslims are watching to see how Trump handles Ramadan, a time of year when the White House at least symbolically recognizes more than 3.3 million Muslims in the United States. If Trump ditches the iftar, that supports the idea that he’s hostile to Islam. If he holds it, it’ll be the White House invitation nobody wants. Prominent Muslims who have attended in the past privately say they’d boycott a Trump iftar.After Trump’s semi-conciliatory remarks to Muslim leaders at a summit in Saudi Arabia this month, Muslims in Washington speculated that he might follow up with a Ramadan event for foreign diplomats at least, if not for the American Muslims he omitted in his Riyadh speech. But that idea has faded in the wake of the deadly suicide bombing at an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, England, which has fueled an anti-Islam backlash across social media and makes it politically trickier for Trump to be seen by his base as socializing with Muslims.Even if there’s public grumbling, activists said, privately there would be a collective sigh of relief in Muslim political circles if the administration skipped the traditional dinner. Canceling would spare invitees the public litmus test of who’s willing to engage with Trump and who stands in solidarity with the camp that rejects community interaction with this White House.Williams said one of the main concerns is being duped into a photo op for an administration that has shown zero interest in meaningful Muslim inclusion at home.Will Trump continue the tradition of a White House iftar? And if he does, would anybody go?“I don’t want them to take a picture of me shaking his hand when I have gotten nothing from him, have not been able to even meet with anyone from his administration,” Williams said. “I believe in engagement, but there has not been enough groundwork with the Muslim community.”

BuzzFeed News couldn’t reach a White House official for comment on Ramadan plans. Trump disbanded the Office of Public Engagement, which helped organize such events. A spinoff outreach office is run by reality-TV personality Omarosa Manigault — there’s no contact number or presence on the White House website.The office that handles faith-based partnerships still has no director. While Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner has held informal meetings with Muslims, there’s no formal Muslim liaison, as there was at the end of Obama’s presidency. A spokesman for the State Department, which typically helps organize the White House iftar, said he wasn’t sure about plans at State and referred other questions to the White House.Several Muslim activists said White House officials told them there were no plans for Ramadan, though they didn’t rule out a last-minute event. But given how Trump didn’t attend the White House’s modest Passover seder last month — his observant Jewish daughter Ivanka and son-in-law Kushner also skipped it — few Muslims are betting on an iftar, or at least not the kind seen in recent years.“I wouldn’t hold my breath,” said Zaki Barzinji, who served as the White House liaison to Muslim American communities during Obama’s final year in office.The first iftar at the White House happened by chance in 1805, when Thomas Jefferson invited an Ottoman-era ambassador from Tunis to dine at the White House, according to a story that’s been recounted by President Barack Obama. The invitation was for the usual suppertime of 3:30 p.m., the story goes, but Jefferson adjusted it to after sunset to accommodate the Muslim envoy’s fast.President Donald Trump and Saudi Arabia's King Salman in Riyadh.

The more recent incarnation of White House Ramadan events didn’t really start until Bill Clinton was president; then–first lady Hillary Clinton presided over an Eid celebration in 1996. During the Bush era, there were iftars, but they were primarily State Department-organized fetes for Muslim diplomats. That was also when the dinners took a decidedly political turn, as Muslims who attended caught flak for palling around with the same administration behind the Iraq invasion and the Guantánamo prison camp.Under the Obama administration, the primarily diplomatic events turned into celebrations of Islam’s deep roots in the United States, with displays of Thomas Jefferson’s Qur’an and stories of American Muslim doctors, soldiers, teachers, and Olympians.Yet even under Obama, celebrating Ramadan was controversial, most notably in 2014, around the time of the 2014 Gaza War. Invitees who showed up to mark Islam’s holy month were offended by the presence of the Israeli ambassador and by a lecture from Obama about Israel’s right to defend itself — all during an Israeli military campaign that would kill more than 2,000 Palestinians, including 495 children, according to UN figures.Manal Omar, a longtime humanitarian worker who’s now an associate vice president at the United States Institute of Peace, got pushback from some Muslims for attending the 2014 iftar. But she’s an unapologetic believer in the payoff of engagement, a stand that was shaped when she attended the first White House Eid celebration after spending years as a young activist pushing for federal recognition of Muslim holidays.Manal Omar confronted President Barack Obama over Middle East policy at the 2014 White House iftar.As Omar stood in line to shake Obama’s hand that evening, she decided to take the opportunity to mention Gaza to him, if only in passing. Instead, she and Obama ended up in a somewhat heated exchange over Middle East policy and humanitarian law, a moment captured in two photos. Omar said she admires Obama for giving her the space to speak her mind “without fear or retaliation.” Such opportunity for frank dialogue would be lost if the White House iftar goes by the wayside, Omar said.“Holding my government accountable for domestic and foreign policies I strongly oppose is not mutually exclusive with celebrating my rights as a citizen to be recognized by the White House,” Omar said.Saleh Williams, the Islamic Relief liaison who keeps a Washington iftar calendar, acknowledged the criticism that such White House events are just chicken dinner banquets where the nitty-gritty issues get glossed over.But he’s also seen serious lobbying on behalf of Muslim interests. He’s still miffed about not getting to chat with former attorney general Eric Holder when they sat next to each other at one White House iftar; seated on Holder’s other side was Muslim Advocates director Farhana Khera, who “was at him nonstop about civil liberties and civil rights,” Saleh Williams recalled.Perhaps more importantly, he said, Ramadan events helped Muslims who don’t normally have access to their government walk the halls of power and understand that they are constituents. He remembers the pride he felt at seeing hundreds of Muslims show up to an event at the US Capitol.“I wanted them — as Sudanese, as Desis, as Arabs, as African-Americans — to know that this is their building. They own it,” Saleh Williams said. “I wanted them to feel acclimated to walking those halls, to knowing that this is their space.”So, he was asked, does that mean he’d attend an iftar at Trump’s White House?A pause.“The Muslim community — what are we getting out of it?” Saleh Williams said. “What do you get out of engaging with a president who has yet to take any type of ownership of cultivating an environment of xenophobia and racism?”Hannah Allam is a reporter for BuzzFeed News and is based in Washington, DC.Contact Hannah Allam at hannah.allam@buzzfeed.com.

[noraina]

From how he was behaving in Saudi Arabia, I wouldn't be surprised if he does organise something for Ramadan. He's trying, as hard as he can, to be politically correct....let's just say money talks.

I can imagine it being extremely awkward though, lol.

[sister herb]

From how he was behaving in Saudi Arabia, I wouldn't be surprised if he does organise something for Ramadan. He's trying, as hard as he can, to be politically correct....let's just say money talks.

I can imagine it being extremely awkward though, lol.

I believe that if he arranges something for Muslims at the Ramadan, it´s most likely a dinner and on the menu has pork ribs. That much "political correct" he seems to be.

[Singularity]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...=.6aa3ba1ddd3c

Acts of FaithTrump’s statement on Ramadan is almost entirely about terrorism By Sarah Pulliam Bailey May 26 at 2:37 PM

President Trump speaks in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on May 21. (Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images)

President Trump issued a statement on Ramadan — a holy month of fasting and prayer for Muslims around the world — that focused primarily on violence and terrorism. His statement was a stark contrast from the Ramadan message President George W. Bush issued in the aftermath of Sept. 11, 2001, in which he emphasized how millions of Americans are Muslim and explained Islamic belief.“At its core, the spirit of Ramadan strengthens awareness of our shared obligation to reject violence, to pursue peace, and to give to those in need who are suffering from poverty or conflict,” Trump wrote.Trump noted recent terrorist attacks in the United Kingdom and in Egypt, “acts of depravity that are directly contrary to the spirit of Ramadan. Such acts only steel our resolve to defeat the terrorists and their perverted ideology.”Trump also noted his recent visit to Saudi Arabia, where he gave a speech on terrorism. “I reiterate my message delivered in Riyadh: America will always stand with our partners against terrorism and the ideology that fuels it,” he said in the statement.Trump has often used the phrase ‘radical Islamic terrorism.’ But not in Saudi Arabia.President Trump did not use the phrase when he delivered a speech to leaders from Muslim countries in Saudi Arabia. (Thomas Johnson/The Washington Post)Several Americans who are Muslims said Friday that they especially noted Trump’s framing of terrorism around Ramadan. Shadi Hamid, a fellow at the Brookings Institution who is Muslim, said his expectations of Trump are so low that he seemed surprised Trump said something “vaguely nice” in parts of the statement.“Trump has so rarely recognized that American Muslims even exist, but this offers apparent proof that he is aware of our existence. Great!” he said. “Putting all that context aside, it’s offensive and pretty much terrible.”Trump’s statement, Hamid said, ties Muslims who are American citizens to the problem of terrorism.“We, as American Muslims, shouldn’t be defined solely in our relationship to bad things that we have nothing to do with,” Hamid said. “We’re also normal people who happen to be Muslim and to see us and our history in America so narrowly is plain out offensive.”Asma T. Uddin, editor of AltMuslimah, said she thinks Trump’s statement is typical of his position on Islam, though it’s less infused with fear. For instance, Trump said a year ago, “I think Islam hates us.”“To the extent he’s playing nice, it’s again and always linked to Muslims’ utility in countering radicalism/solving terrorism,” she said.Muslims spend the month of Ramadan in prayer and reflection and feeding the poor, and Wajahat Ali, a writer and lawyer who has studied the anti-Muslim movement in the United States. He joked about how Trump’s statement seems odd in context.“I didn’t know Allah sent down Ramadan, a month of mercy, peace and blessings, to deputize American Muslims to help the U.S. fight ISIS,” Ali said, referring to the Islamic State by another name. “Here I was thinking it’s a month where Muslims reconnect with our spirit, our creator, our family and our communities and uplift ourselves through fasting, restraint, generosity and prayer.”Compared with Trump and his comments on Islam, Bush is “seen as a moderate, enlightened sage,” Ali said.“I mean do you really want us to fight ISIS during Ramadan?” Ali said. “We’ll be weak. I’m fasting from dawn until sunset. Not even water? Not even water! I mean, I could kill terrorists with my Ramadan breath.”Trump’s statement comes after two terrorist attacks this week that drew global attention. A suicide bomber killed 22 people at a concert in Manchester, England, on Monday night. The suicide bomber grew up in a Muslim home but was banned from his local mosque and reported by the community multiple times, but authorities didn’t act, according to the Telegraph.Gunmen left at least 28 people dead after attacking a bus in the Minya region of Egypt on May 26. (Sarah Parnass,Julio Negron,Heba Farouk Mahfouz/The Washington Post)On Friday, militants opened fire on a bus carrying Coptic Christians in central Egypt, killing at least 28 people, though no group had claimed responsibility for the attack. The bus was headed to a pilgrimage site in an area that is home to a large portion of Egypt’s Christian population.Presidents have long issued statements commemorating religious holidays, and this one was drafted at the State Department and the National Security Council before it made its way to the president’s desk, a White House official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss the impetus of the president’s statement.“He’s not blaming Muslims,” she said. “He’s asking for solidarity in fighting this battle. In light of what has happened over the last week, this is something that is utterly antithetical to what Ramadan and Islam is supposed to be about. He wanted to raise it in this context.”The official said she did not know whether the White House would host anything for Ramadan as it has in the past.

Bush’s 2001 statement on Ramadan did not note terrorism or violence and described Islam as one of the fastest-growing religions in the country, with millions of followers in the United States.“It teaches the value and importance of charity, mercy, and peace,” Bush wrote. He noted U.S. humanitarian relief efforts in Afghanistan and quoted the Koran, but his main emphasis was on Americans who are Muslim and what Islam teaches.“The American Muslim community is as varied as the many Muslim communities across the world,” Bush wrote. “Muslims from diverse backgrounds pray together in mosques all across our great land. And American Muslims serve in every walk of life, including our armed forces.”Trump and many of his Cabinet members have a long history of making comments about Islam that have upset Muslims. (The Washington Post compiled a timeline of his comments.)For example, when he was a candidate, Trump had trouble recalling Americans who are Muslim. After Trump tweeted in 2015 that he couldn’t recall any Muslim “sports heroes,” pictures of him with the boxer Muhammad Ali began to circulate.“He could not recall the honor of being on stage with one of the icons of American life but could remember to deny part of America’s story,” said Hussein Rashid, founder of Islamicate, a consultancy focusing on religious literacy. “With his depth of understanding of religion and the company he keeps, I fully expect him to honor the Ku Klux Klan as representatives of Christianity during his Christmas message.”Ali, who died in 2016, was one of the most famous American Muslims. In 2015, he issued a statement aimed at Trump in which he decried anti-Muslim speech.“I am a Muslim and there is nothing Islamic about killing innocent people in Paris, San Bernardino, or anywhere else in the world,” Ali said. “True Muslims know that the ruthless violence of so called Islamic Jihadists goes against the very tenets of our religion.”Ramadan begins Friday evening and ends on June 24.The full statement from President Trump on Ramadan is below:On behalf of the American people, I would like to wish all Muslims a joyful Ramadan.During this month of fasting from dawn to dusk, many Muslims in America and around the world will find meaning and inspiration in acts of charity and meditation that strengthen our communities. At its core, the spirit of Ramadan strengthens awareness of our shared obligation to reject violence, to pursue peace, and to give to those in need who are suffering from poverty or conflict.This year, the holiday begins as the world mourns the innocent victims of barbaric terrorist attacks in the United Kingdom and Egypt, acts of depravity that are directly contrary to the spirit of Ramadan. Such acts only steel our resolve to defeat the terrorists and their perverted ideology.On my recent visit to Saudi Arabia, I had the honor of meeting with the leaders of more than 50 Muslim nations. There, in the land of the two holiest sites in the Muslim world, we gathered to deliver together an emphatic message of partnership for the sake of peace, security, and prosperity for our countries and for the world.I reiterate my message delivered in Riyadh: America will always stand with our partners against terrorism and the ideology that fuels it. During this month of Ramadan, let us be resolved to spare no measure so that we may ensure that future generations will be free of this scourge and able to worship and commune in peace.I extend my best wishes to Muslims everywhere for a blessed month as you observe the Ramadan traditions of charity, fasting, and prayer. May God bless you and your families.Sarah Pulliam Bailey is a religion reporter, covering how faith intersects with politics, culture and...everything. Follow @spulliam

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[noraina]

I believe that if he arranges something for Muslims at the Ramadan, it´s most likely a dinner and on the menu has pork ribs. That much "political correct" he seems to be.

Or maybe he'll serve a passport out of the US forever....it's sad to say but you can't put anything past him.

The state visits he has been doing these days have a lot of cringe moments, he's trying hard to be nice but he just can't lol.