#White House | Annual | Ramadan Iftar | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

jewish-privilege · 5 years

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For the second year in a row, the Trump administration largely excluded American Muslims from a White House celebration of Islam’s holiest month.

“Once again, the White House refuses to acknowledge the existence and contributions of American Muslims at the annual White House Iftar,” the Muslim Public Affairs Council lamented in a blog post Monday. Iftar is the nightly break-fast meal held after sunset during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

The modern White House Iftar dinner tradition began during the Clinton administration and continued through three presidencies, though Trump declined to hold a dinner in his first year in office. After the White House resumed the tradition in 2018, Vox reported that “no Muslim-American leaders or activists appear to have attended the dinner.”

The White House declined on Tuesday to share its invitation list for the event, another contrast with the Obama administration. But statements from Trump’s press team indicate American Muslims were largely left out.

“The President hosted an Iftar dinner at the White House for Ambassadors and members of the diplomatic corps representing countries with significant Muslim populations,” White House deputy press secretary Judd Deere said in an email.

That precisely matched the President’s language in brief remarks he made at the dinner. After shouting out several members of his Cabinet in attendance, Trump thanked “many of the ambassadors and members of the diplomatic corps representing countries with large Muslim populations.”

Trump on Monday sat next to Vlora Çitaku, Kosovo’s ambassador to the United States, among others.

TPM was able to confirm that at least one Muslim-American attendee: Imam Dawud Agbere of the U.S. Army. Agbere has attended other White House events during the Trump presidency.

Notably, Agbere, who was born in Ghana, came to the United States after winning the so-called “Diversity Visa” lottery, a program Trump has relentlessly attacked and sought to end.

A spokesperson for Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) told TPM that the congresswoman was not invited to Monday’s Iftar dinner. Spokespeople for Congress’s two other Muslim members, Reps. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) and André Carson (D-IN), did not respond to requests for comment.

Nihad Awad, the Executive Director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, wrote on Twitter that the White House “[cut] out American Muslim community leaders” from the dinner.

Robert McCaw, the group’s director of government affairs, told TPM in a phone interview that he didn’t know of any Muslim American leaders who attended the dinner. He said the group heard about one invitation being extended to an American Muslim, who he described as politically conservative, but he couldn’t confirm the person had actually attended.

“By the way,” McCaw said, referring to Trump’s latest smear against Tlaib, “I think it’s ridiculous that Trump holds an Iftar the same day he openly attacks a Muslim member of Congress with false accusations of anti-Semitism.”

Sure. Makes complete sense. (sarcasm)

#islamophobia

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newstfionline · 8 years

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Theologian-in-Chief

Amy Sullivan, Yahoo News, Jan. 14, 2017

Over the course of his presidency, Barack Obama has spoken about his Christian faith arguably more often and in greater detail than any other modern U.S. president.

That claim will surprise many political liberals who still believe that George W. Bush spent his time in the White House trying to turn the United States in a theocracy run by evangelical Christians. It is also sure to outrage those conservative Christians who argue that Obama is hostile to their faith. And it must confound the 43 percent of Republicans who as recently as the fall of 2015 told pollsters they still thought Obama is Muslim.

But a look back through eight years of Obama’s National Prayer Breakfast speeches, his remarks at the White House Easter Prayer Breakfast that began as a new tradition during his first term, and the heartbreaking number of eulogies he has delivered following mass shootings reveals a president who has spoken about faith not only with great frequency but also with uncommon depth.

“This is a president who is very comfortable with deep reflection and discussion around the theological implications of faith,” says David Domke, communications professor at the University of Washington and co-author of “The God Strategy: How Religion Became a Political Weapon in America.”

Previous presidents have certainly invoked religion and displayed a comfort with the language of faith. Dwight Eisenhower is still the only president to have written a prayer that he read at his first inauguration. He was baptized not long after. And he once said of himself, “I am the most intensely religious man I know.” Several decades later, Jimmy Carter taught Sunday school at a Baptist church not far from the White House during his presidency. George W. Bush cited Jesus as his favorite political philosopher in an Iowa debate before the 2000 GOP caucuses, and he enthusiastically made the support of faith-based organizations one of his first domestic policy priorities.

Bill Clinton may come the closest to Obama in being a president whose speeches occasionally veered into sermon territory. At one point during the 1992 campaign, Clinton traveled to Memphis to address the annual Church of God in Christ convention. Dissatisfied with remarks his staff had drafted, Clinton tossed them aside and delivered an extemporaneous sermon on the “new covenant” between government and citizens, drawing “amen”s from the crowd.

If Clinton sometimes aspired to be the preacher-in-chief, however, Obama has been a theologian-in-chief. Since entering the White House in 2009, he has steadily built on the work of Reinhold Niebuhr, the influential theologian he once told New York Times columnist David Brooks was “one of my favorite philosophers.” And as racial tensions at home and terror attacks abroad have spread anxiety, the president has spent the past few years developing a theology of faith in the face of fear.

Let’s get this out of the way first: Yes, Obama is a Christian. Raised in a mostly secular environment--his mother was “spiritual” but suspicious of organized religion, and his grandparents were nonpracticing Protestants--he began attending Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago after he moved to the city to become a community organizer.

He responded to an altar call in 1988 at age 26, knelt before the cross and became a Christian. As he told the National Prayer Breakfast in 2011, “It was through that experience, working with pastors and laypeople, trying to heal the hurting wounds of neighborhoods, that I came to know Jesus Christ for myself and embrace him as my Lord and Savior.”

To little fanfare, in 2010 Obama and his close aide Joshua DuBois began a tradition of hosting Christian leaders at the White House for an Easter breakfast. At these gatherings, which continued through the last year of his presidency, Obama spoke in surprisingly intimate ways about the nature of his faith.

“We are awed by the grace [Jesus] showed even to those who would have killed him,” he told the clergy at that first 2010 breakfast. “We are thankful for the sacrifice he gave for the sins of humanity. And we glory in the promise of redemption in the resurrection.”

At the 2015 breakfast, the president spoke about the daily challenges of faith. “Today we celebrate the magnificent glory of our risen Savior,” he said. “I pray that I will live up to his example. I fall short so often. Every day I try to do better.”

Just a few months later, after the killings at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, S.C., Obama stunned mourners when he began singing the first verse from “Amazing Grace” while eulogizing victims of the massacre. It was a powerful moment. But while that may have been a first for a sitting president, others have spoken openly about their faith. Where Obama differs from his predecessors, according to Domke, is his willingness to go deeper in talking about theological ideas.

“In those moments of high-profile eulogies, he has been pretty comfortable with diving into some of the deeper areas of how faith can comfort and sustain people,” says Domke. “Obama didn’t just sing ‘Amazing Grace.’ He preached about the meaning of grace.”

Indeed, Obama took the extraordinary step of weaving a mini-sermon about the responsibilities of grace into a funeral address. “According to the Christian tradition,” he began, “grace is not earned. Grace is not merited. It’s not something we deserve. Rather, grace is the free and benevolent favor of God.”

He continued, “As a nation, out of this terrible tragedy, God has visited grace upon us, for he has allowed us to see where we’ve been blind.” That hymn reference allowed Obama to segue into the sins the Charleston slaughter forced into the open. And once again, “the unique mayhem that gun violence inflicts upon this nation.”

Whenever individuals make “the moral choice to change,” Obama suggested, “we express God’s grace.” The message left unsaid: to fight moral change is to refuse to embody grace.

In the last year of his presidency, Obama has turned his attention to the question of how people of faith should respond to fear. Speaking at the White House Easter breakfast in the aftermath of terror attacks in Brussels, he told his guests, “These attacks can foment fear and division. They can tempt us to cast out the stranger, to strike out against those who don’t look like us or pray exactly as we do.”

But, he continued, “if Easter means anything, it’s that you don’t have to be afraid. We are Easter people, people of hope and not fear.”

Obama’s most complete mediation on fear took the form of his final National Prayer Breakfast address, in which he preached on a verse from 2 Timothy: “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.”

“It is a primal emotion--fear--one that we all experience. And it can be contagious,” he acknowledged. “For me, and I know for so many of you, faith is the great cure for fear. Jesus is a good cure for fear.”

“His love,” Obama continued, “gives us the power to resist fear’s temptations. He gives us the courage to reach out to others across that divide, rather than push people away.”

That’s a message that hasn’t been heard from many pulpits in the past year, with conservative Christians afraid of government and threats posed by immigrants and refugees, and liberal Christians afraid of Trump himself and the normalization of intolerance. But it’s a profoundly Christian message--”My faith tells me that I need not fear death; that the acceptance of Christ promises everlasting life and the washing away of sins,” Obama reminded his listeners.

He moved on to argue that being free from fear should lead Christians to be more open, not closed and defensive, protecting their own turf. “Each of us is called … to assume the best in each other,” the president said, “and not just the worst.”

Obama closed with a remarkable tale about a U.S. sergeant in World War II whose soldiers were captured by Nazis. When the Nazi colonel ordered Jewish POWs to identify themselves, the sergeant responded by telling all 200 of his troops to line up. Holding a pistol to the sergeant’s head, the German ordered, “Tell me who the Jews are.” The American simply repeated over and over, “We are all Jews.”

“I can’t imagine a moment in which that young American sergeant expressed his Christianity more profoundly than when, confronted by his own death, he said, ‘We are all Jews,’” said Obama. “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.”

Obama’s approach to religion as president has been in keeping with everything else we know about him. It makes sense that the former professor would respond to years of almost unbearable violence--he delivered at least 10 national addresses following mass shootings in the space of seven years--through reflection on faith and grace and belief.

In his last such appearance--after five Dallas officers were killed by a sniper--Obama quoted from the Epistle of John and the prophet Ezekiel. “My faith tells me these men did not die in vain,” he told mourners.

The son of two secularists was also the first president to regularly mention nonbelievers, starting with his first inaugural address in 2009: “We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus, and nonbelievers.”

The man who spent part of his childhood living in Indonesia and whose sister Maya identifies with Buddhism has opened up the White House for celebrations of many faiths. He is the first president to host a celebration of the Hindu holiday Diwali by lighting a diya in the Oval Office. Obama continued an annual White House tradition that has been in place since 1996 of holding an iftar dinner to observe the end of Ramadan. And he is the first president to host a Passover seder for family, friends and staff every year of his presidency.

And the man who spent his entire presidency having his Christian faith denied by critics who suggested he was hiding a secret Muslim identity has consistently spoken out on the need to protect Muslim Americans from discrimination.

It may be that Obama’s willingness to embrace people of other faiths, his broadening of the official religious landscape beyond just white Christian traditions, make it difficult for so many Americans to hear him when he speaks about his own faith.

#Obama's faith #Obama a Christian #theologian in chief

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pauldeckerus · 6 years

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These Are the Best iPhone Photos of 2018

The IPPAWARDS, or iPhone Photography Awards, has been celebrating the joy of iPhone photography since 2007, and it just released the winners of its 2018 photo contest celebrating the best iPhone photos of the year. The grand prize winner this year is Jashim Salam of Bangladesh, who shot the above photo with an iPhone 7.

Captured in Ukhiya, Bangladesh, the image shows “Rohingya children watching an awareness film about health and sanitation near Tangkhali refugee camp in Ukhiya.”

Here are the other winning photos from this year’s contest:

Alexandre Weber of Switzerland. 1st Place, Photographer of the Year. Shot on iPhone 6S Baiana in yellow and blue “The picture was taken in Salvador de Bahia, Brazil, spontaneously, after a truck drove by. The woman with traditional clothes of a “baiana”, was looking after the truck, during her work break.” Location: Salvador de Bahia, Brazil

Huapeng Zhao of China. 2nd Place, Photographer of the Year. Shot on iPhone 6 Eye to eye “I met this boy while walking at the seaside. When I was trying to take a picture of him, he put the fish he caught in front of his eye.“ Location: YanTai ShanDong province, China

Zarni Myo Win of Myanmar. 3rd Place, Photographer of the Year. Shot on iPhone 7 Plus I want to play “A young boy who lost his leg was watching his friends play soccer, and he said he wanted to play soccer if he could.” Location: Yangon, Myanmar

Glenn Homann of Australia. 1st Place – Abstract. Shot on iPhone X Corrugations “I was looking to take some photos in a rather cluttered, messy industrial space. As I became more frustrated at the lack of interesting images, my eye honed in on smaller details. A simple and striking black and white image of cardboard scraps resulted.” Location: Brisbane, Australia

Robin Robertis of United States. 1st Place – Animals. Shot on iPhone 7 Plus “Django” Old man baby dog “Django is a Shaolin Temple Terrier, born and raised in a Buddhist monastery in the northern province of Hunan China. Django likes long walks on the beach and listening to Miles Davis.” Location: Carlsbad, California

Massimo Graziani of Italy. 1st Place – Architecture. Shot on iPhone 7 Plus Rampage “A stair ramp from Rome in Via Allegri.” Location: Rome, Italy

Melisa Barrilli of Canada. 1st Place – Children. Shot on iPhone 5S Spray Fury “My daughter was wearing her ballet leotard and she was spraying her siblings and herself.” Location: Toronto, Canada

Alison Helena of United States. 1st Place – Floral. Shot on iPhone 7 Light “I was parking to do my weekly grocery shopping and saw the amazing light on the wall and flowers” Location: Santa Barbara, California

Charles Thomas of United States. 1st Place – Landscape. Shot on iPhone 8 Plus Human vs. Nature “I’ve always been fascinated with the view out of an airplane window. On this afternoon, I was lucky enough to get a window seat on a return trip from Las Vegas. I watched the landscape slowly transform from cityscape to rows of identical suburban houses, to surreal desert- scape.” Location: Between Nevada and Arizona

Natalia Garcés of Spain. 1st Place – Lifestyle. Shot on iPhone 7 Mrs. Sancheski “This day I opened my second exhibition, there was a lot of atmosphere and good friends. Mrs. Sancheski is the mother of three children, unique, urban and stylish.“ Location: Alcalá de Henares , Madrid, Spain

Sukru Mehmet Omur of France. 1st Place – Nature. Shot on iPhone 6S Morning Fog Location: Toulouse France

Mohammed Badra of Syria. 1st Place – News/Events. Shot on iPhone 7 Iftar Amongst the Ruins “During a lull in the bombings, Syrians gather, seated on a long 1200-meter row of tables set up amongst the ruins of Douma, for a public Iftar, the evening meal at the end of the daily Ramadan fast.” Location: Douma, Syria

Amy Nelson of United States. 1st Place – Other. Shot on iPhone SE Sky Portal “I took this photo at the 39th Annual Wright Kite Festival in Kill Devil Hills, NC, where 30-100 foot kites were on display amidst clouds and drizzle.” Location: Wright Brothers National Park, North Carolina

Mateusz Piesiak of Poland. 1st Place – Panorama. Shot on iPhone 6 Plus Icebergs “In summer the sun is above the horizon nearly all day where Vatnajökull glacier meets the Atlantic Ocean.” Location: Iceland

Jonas Wyssen of Switzerland. 1st Place – People. Shot on iPhone 7 Plus Posers “Brazilian tourist posing in front of a small catholic chapel taking a tourists photo.” Location: Praia de Carneiros Pernambuco, Brazil

Scott Woodward of Singapore. 1st Place – Portrait. Shot on iPhone 6S Salamah “Moken village elder, Salamah, wearing his hand- carved wooden dive goggles on the beach at Au Bon Yai, a tiny island community of about 300 sea gypsies off the coast of Phang Nga, Thailand.” Location: Ko Surin, Thailand

Fiona Bailey of United Kingdom. 1st Place – Still Life. Shot on iPhone 7 Diner Location: London, England

Sara Ronkainen Finland. 1st Place – Sunset. Shot on iPhone 5s Dandelion sunset “In central Finland, where summer days are long and sunsets beautiful. I was out walking by a lake one evening, and saw dandelions floating in the breeze. Feeling inspired, I picked one, held it up and used it as a filter through which to capture the last rays of the day’s sun.” Location: Jyväskylä, Finland

Anna Aiko of Japan, France. 1st Place – Travel. Shot on iPhone 6S Silk Road “This photo was taken on the first day of my departure for the desert of Gobi, on the Silk Road. On the road I got lost with my two Mongolian men, driver and guide, and we found ourselves in this area known for the very first traces of dinosaurs. The atmosphere was magical, in the vast desert with plains and mountains.” Location: Mongolia

Lidia Muntean of Romania. 1st Place – Trees. Shot on iPhone 7 Plus Road of Tuscany “This photo was taken near Pienza and Montalcino.” Location: Val D’Orcia

You can find all of this year’s winning photos (beyond these 1st place winners) as well as winners from across the previous decade on the IPPAWARDS website.

Image credits: Photographs copyright their respective photographers and via IPPAWARDS 2018.

from Photography News https://petapixel.com/2018/07/19/these-are-the-best-iphone-photos-of-2018/

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telugucriccaptain-blog · 7 years

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First Diwali in White after Trump became President

Washington sources have reported that Diwali dinner was first hosted for Indian-American community by former President Barack Obama in 2009. The White House Diwali celebration has since become an annual affair. Earlier in June, Trump infamously ended the decades long White House tradition of celebrating Eid (Ramadan) with an ‘iftar’ dinner. Hence, the Indian-American community had some…

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alicezubia21401-blog · 7 years

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Head of state Obama Organizes Ramadan Iftar Dinner For Muslim Americans At The White Home.

Obama's comedy regimen at the annual White Property Correspondents' Dinner consisted of a smart dig at Hillary Clinton, the existing shoo-in to be the Autonomous candidate http://fittime-sportblog.info in the 2016 presidential vote-casting. While the market place doesn't multiply along with dozens from makers all making a lot of styles, you will not possess any kind of difficulty discovering high-quality, shatter-resistant glassware for whatever your necessities might be actually, whether that's an exclusive dinner gathering or even a major celebration, with all kind of glassware accessible for mixed drinks that require that added contact from heritage or genuineness.

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lateshaharper02-blog · 7 years

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President Obama Throws Ramadan Iftar Supper For Muslim Americans At The White Property.

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tomperanteau · 7 years

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New article has been published on The Daily Digest

New article has been published on http://www.thedailydigest.org/2017/06/26/trump-ends-white-house-ramadan-dinners-breaking-20-yr-tradition/

Trump ends White House Ramadan dinners, breaking 20-yr "tradition"

Donald Trump has declined to host a dinner to mark the end of Ramadan, ending a tradition that has been observed at the White House for more than 20 years. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson also declined to host a reception to mark the holiday.

The White House’s tradition of holding an annual iftar dinner for Eid al-Fitr, which marks the end of Ramadan, began under the Clinton administration, which first hosted the event in 1996.

However, the first such dinner dates all the way back to 1805, when Thomas Jefferson invited an ambassador from Tunis to the White House.

Instead of following the tradition on Saturday, Trump and First Lady Melania attended the wedding of Treasury Secretary Steve Munchin, who married Scottish actress Louis Linton.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson also reportedly said earlier in the year that the White House would not be hosting a dinner.

The White House did issue a statement acknowledging Eid late on Saturday, however.

“Muslims in the United States joined those around the world during the holy month of Ramadan to focus on acts of faith and charity,” Trump’s statement said.

“During this holiday, we are reminded of the importance of mercy, compassion, and goodwill. With Muslims around the world, [READ MORE HERE]

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jimivaey · 7 years

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Trump Declines To Hold Ramadan Dinner At White House, Breaks 20-year Tradition

By Oladipupo Mojeed

US President Donald Trump has broken a two-decade-old tradition of hosting an iftar meal at the White House during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

The tradition was started by First Lady Hillary Clinton, who hosted a meal on Eid al-Fitr, to mark the end of Ramadan, in 1996. Both Presidents George Bush and Barack Obama hosted annual iftar – the meal that breaks the daily…

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ralphmorgan-blog1 · 7 years

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Breaking with tradition, Trump White House forgoes Ramadan dinner

(CNN)For the first time in nearly two decades, the White House did not host an iftar dinner to commemorate Ramadan, the Islamic holy month of fasting.

Instead, President Donald Trump and first lady Melania released a statement on Saturday wishing "warm greetings" to those celebrating Eid al-Fitr, an important holiday marking the end of Ramadan.

"Muslims in the United States joined those around the world during the holy month of Ramadan to focus on acts of faith and charity," they said. "Now, as they commemorate Eid with family and friends, they carry on the tradition of helping neighbors and breaking bread with people from all walks of life."

By not hosting a dinner, Trump breaks with an annual tradition upheld by the past three administrations. The dinners began under President Bill Clinton and were continued by both Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama. They were typically attended by prominent members of the Muslim community as well as members of Congress and diplomats from Muslim countries.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson also broke with decades of tradition by rejecting a request by the State Department's Office of Religion and Global Affairs to host a reception marking Eid al-Fitr, according to two administration officials familiar with the decision.

Since 1999, Tillerson's five Republican and Democratic predecessors have hosted either an iftar dinner to break the fast during Ramadan or an Eid al-Fitr reception at the end of the monthlong holiday. Many diplomatic posts overseas also host events during the Ramadan month of fasting and prayer.

The President has had a fraught relationship with the Muslim community in the United States. Many criticized his campaign trail calls for the surveillance of mosques as Islamophobic. In the White House, Trump has attempted to ban travel to the US from several Muslim-majority countries. However, during his first trip abroad, Trump attempted to bridge that divide, delivering a speech to the leaders of 55 Muslim-majority countries calling for unity in the fight against terrorism.

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learnprogress · 7 years

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BREAKING: Trump Sends TOXIC Message To American Muslims.

Breaking DECADES of presidential tradition, Donald Trump won’t be hosting the annual iftar dinner at the White House celebrating the end of Ramadan, a sacred month of fasting for Muslims across the world. This is a slap in the face to every American Muslim, as it proves once again that Trump does not approve of their citizenship in our nation.

These iftar dinners have long been a mainstay in the White House, first starting over twenty years ago during Bill Clinton’s administration. Since then, George W. Bush and Barack Obama faithfully kept the tradition as a way to congratulate our Muslim American neighbors on the holiday of Eid al-Fitr.

Eid al-Fitr is an extremely important and jovial holiday in the Islamic faith, as it marks the day in which the fasting of Ramadan officially concludes. More importantly, these annual Eid al-Fitr dinners at the White House have presented an opportunity for important members in the Muslim community to have their voices heard by the president.

So, in a tasteless and needlessly provocative decision, Trump will NOT be celebrating the end of Ramadan this year at the White House. That means that Trump also will not be meeting with top Muslim American leaders as is customary at these dinners.

The message here is clear: Trump doesn’t approve of Muslims, and he doesn’t care about the opinions or well-being of their communities. It would take NOTHING for Trump’s aides to throw together this customary dinner and for Trump to stop by for thirty minutes, but Agent Orange simply won’t be bothered by it.

It’s moves like this that contribute to the rising tide of Islamophobia in America. Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Obama ALL showed that it’s just common sense to reach out to our Muslim neighbors. However, Trump has no common sense, and he certainly has no decency.

THIS is why Muslim Americans are more afraid to live in our nation than ever before. Trump is enacting an increasingly anti-Muslim vision for the nation with each passing day.

With reports that Trump spends a TON of his time watching TV in the White House, it’s not like Trump is skipping over the iftar dinner this year because of a tight schedule. Trump’s refusal to celebrate the end of Ramadan is clearly calculated as hell.

These kinds of moves should come as no surprise as Islamophobes like Stephen Miller and Steve Bannon help run Trump’s White House. This is THEIR vision for our nation, and it doesn’t include Muslim Americans.

If Trump isn’t hosting a Ramadan dinner, then he shouldn’t host ANY religious events in the future. We’ll be watching for the impending hypocrisy, that’s for sure.

POLL: Is Trump an Islamophobe?

Where do you stand on this story? Is Trump nothing short of an Islamophobe?

Please participate in our poll below and ensure that your opinion counts. Our Muslim neighbors need us to stand up for them now more than ever!

Trump’s White House just breeds disrespect. It’s a bad time to be an American unless you’re rich, old, and white.

This kind of toxic vision for our nation should have no place in our society. Trump and the rest of his hateful goons must be resisted with JUSTICE until the promises of liberty and equality are returned again to America.

Help us make sure everyone sees how Trump is snubbing Muslim Americans. Please share this story on Facebook stat!

The post BREAKING: Trump Sends TOXIC Message To American Muslims. appeared first on Learn Progress.

from BREAKING: Trump Sends TOXIC Message To American Muslims.

#Domestic Affairs #Donald Trump #Social Justice #anti-muslim rhetoric #donald trump #Muslims #Ramadan

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globallnewsfan-blog · 7 years

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http://www.globallnews.com/archives/61399

President Trump skips hosting annual Ramadan dinner, breaking with almost 20 years of tradition - New York Daily News

President Trump made a statement — literally — as his White House became the first in nearly 20 years not to host an annual iftar dinner celebrating the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. In lieu of the festivities hosted throughout the Clinton, Bush and Obama administrations, the

#News

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rabidjakal · 7 years

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Breaking with tradition, Trump White House forgoes Ramadan dinner:

By not hosting a dinner, Trump breaks with an annual tradition upheld by the past three administrations (CNN) — For the first time in nearly two decades, the White House did not host an iftar dinner to commemorate Ramadan, the Islamic holy month of fasting. Instead, President Donald Trump and first lady Melania released a statement on Saturday wishing “warm greetings” to those celebrating Eid…

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newstfionline · 7 years

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Jefferson hosted an iftar in 1805. White House Ramadan celebrations could end under Trump.

By Amy B Wang, Washington Post, June 17, 2017

In the early days of December 1805, a handful of prominent politicians received formal invitations to join President Thomas Jefferson for a White House dinner.

Such entreaties were not uncommon: Jefferson frequently hosted lawmakers for political working dinners at the White House, almost always commencing them about 3:30 in the afternoon, shortly after the House or Senate had adjourned for the day.

But this gathering, scheduled for Dec. 9, would be slightly different.

“dinner will be on the table precisely at sun-set--” the invitations read. “The favour of an answer is asked.”

The occasion was the presence of a Tunisian envoy to the United States, Sidi Soliman Mellimelli, who had arrived in the country just the week before, in the midst of America’s ongoing conflict with what were then known as the Barbary States.

And the reason for the dinner’s later-than-usual start was Mellimelli’s observance of Ramadan, a holy month for Muslims in which observers fast between dawn and dusk. Only after sunset do Muslims break their fast with a meal, referred to as an iftar.

Jefferson’s decision to change the time of the meal to accommodate Mellimelli’s observance of Ramadan has been seized on by both sides in the 21st-century debate over Islam more than 200 years later. Historians have cited the meal as the first time an iftar took place in the White House--and it has been referenced in recent White House celebrations of Ramadan as an embodiment of the Founding Father’s respect for religious freedom.

Whatever Jefferson could have foreseen for the young country’s future, it appears the modern-day White House tradition of marking Ramadan with an iftar dinner or Eid celebration may be coming to an end.

There has so far been no word from President Trump’s administration on whether the White House intends to host such an event this year. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has reportedly already said the State Department will break with recent tradition and not host a Ramadan reception, as it has done nearly annually for two decades.

Ramadan, which falls on the ninth month of the Islamic calendar, started on May 27 this year and will end June 24. Several former White House staff members said they would usually begin planning an iftar “months in advance” and don’t believe the Trump White House could pull something off before the end of Ramadan next week.

If there were any questions about whether Jefferson was aware of Mellimelli’s religious practices, the memoirs of John Quincy Adams--later compiled and published by his son--put those to rest, according to the Papers of Thomas Jefferson at Princeton University.

“I dined at the President’s, in company with the Tunisian Ambassador and his two secretaries,” Adams, at the time a senator from Massachusetts, wrote in his diary on Dec. 9, 1805. “By the invitation, dinner was to have been on the table precisely at sunset--it being in the midst of Ramadan, during which the Turks fast while the sun is above the horizon. Did not arrive until half an hour after sunset, and, immediately after greeting the President and the company, proposed to retire and smoke his pipe.”

In his diary, the future president described Mellimelli with an air of fascination, noting everything from how the envoy smelled (of rose-scented snuff) to how his appearance differed from that of the other “Turks” (Mellimelli wore his beard long, while the two secretaries who had accompanied him only had whiskers).

Adams, the son of President John Adams, captured few details about what was served for dinner itself, only that Mellimelli “freely partook of the dishes on the table without inquiring into the cookery” and that, soon after eating, he left for the drawing room to smoke his pipe again.

“His manners are courteous, but we were all unable to converse with him, except through the medium of an interpreter,” Adams wrote.

It wasn’t until 1996 that the modern-day White House tradition of celebrating Ramadan with a reception or meal started. That February, first lady Hillary Clinton hosted about 150 people for a reception for Eid al-Fitr, which marks the end of the holy month.

The person Clinton credited for teaching her about Islam? Teenage daughter Chelsea, who had the year before studied Islamic history in school, according to reports that year cited by Muslim Voices.

Clinton described the reception as a “historic and overdue occasion,” a precedent for Muslim religious celebrations at the White House, the Associated Press reported then. (It’s unclear if she knew about the Jefferson dinner.)

The tradition continued under President George W. Bush, who hosted an iftar dinner every year of his two terms in office--including shortly after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, when anger toward Muslim Americans was spiking. At the 2001 dinner, in mid-November, Bush emphasized that America was fighting against terrorism, not Islam, according to The Washington Post’s coverage then:

“All the world continues to benefit from this faith and its achievements,” Bush said. “Ramadan and the upcoming holiday season are a good time for people of different faiths to learn more about each other. And the more we learn, the more we find that many commitments are broadly shared.”

After a White House Rose Garden ceremony, Bush had said his message for the dinner would be, “We’re a nation of many faiths.” Asked if the sentiment was symbolic, he immediately replied, “No--it’s real.”

More than 15 years later, Charlotte Beers, who served as undersecretary of state for public diplomacy under Bush, can still remember how effective the iftar had been diplomatically, in being able to show that the United States respected all religions.

“We all agreed that we had to reach out to moderate Muslims and acknowledge that they had as much concern as we did about the circumstances,” Beers told The Post in a recent interview. “That dinner was extremely important and heard around the world. … My personal opinion was, this speaks to that whole underpinning of what makes the United States tick--freedom of religion. It was extremely timely, we felt.”

Rumana Ahmed, who helped plan several White House iftar dinners and one Eid celebration during the Obama administration, said it was unfortunate the tradition could end with Trump. For all of the events she helped coordinate, the focus changed slightly each year: from honoring Muslim American youth to recognizing the economic contributions of the community, for example. But the overarching message of each White House Ramadan event was always one of inclusion and respect, Ahmed said.

“If you look at when it started and how it’s evolved, in a way it’s kind of been in response to conversations happening on a national level and in our society,” Ahmed said.

#Thomas Jefferson #Ramadan dinner at White House #iftar at White House #Donald Trump

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