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American Muslims reject Joe Biden’s Ramadan Iftar invite

Justifying their decision, the American Muslim leaders said it would be shameful to attend any ‘celebratory Iftaar event’ while hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza are starving. Read More

Wednesday April 3, 2024 3:31 PM, ummid.com with inputs from Agencies

[American Muslims offering Maghrib Salah after Iftar in front of White House.]

Washington: Protesting against the US administration’s continued support to the Israeli occupation in Palestine and its ongoing war and blockade in Gaza, top American Muslim community leaders have rejected to accept the White House invite to attend Ramadan Iftar with President Joe Biden.

Muslims around the world observe fast from dawn to dusk during the Holy Month of Ramadan. Iftar is the special meal served when the day’s fast ends after sunset and before Maghrib Salah.

A customary Iftar meal event is organised every year by the White House which is attended by diplomats from various Muslim countries and Muslim community leaders in the United States.

American Muslim leaders have however refused to attend this year’s White House Ramadan Iftar party.

Justifying their decision, the American Muslim leaders said it would be shameful to attend any ‘celebratory Iftaar event’ while hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza are starving.

“It’s inappropriate to do such a celebration while there’s a famine going on in Gaza”, Wa’el Alzayat, who leads Emgage, a Muslim advocacy organization, and had attended the last year’s event, told the news agency Associated Press (AP).

“We’re just in a different world. It’s completely surreal. And it’s sad”, he said.

After the boycott by the Muslim leaders and Arab diplomats, the White House Iftar party was left for a small group of Muslim staff members. However, the White House was forced to cancel the event following the protest, Al Jazeera reported.

One of the guests, a doctor who had recently come back from Gaza, gave the US president a letter written by a displaced Palestinian child in Rafah, who lost his entire family. He then left the event stating that he could not attend it while people in Gaza were being murdered, the Doha based broadcaster reported.

Edward Ahmed Mitchell, Deputy Director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), also said Biden's Iftar was nixed because so many people chose not to attend, including invitees who had initially agreed to go.

“The American Muslim community said very early on that it would be completely unacceptable for us to break bread with the very same White House that is enabling the Israeli government to starve and slaughter the Palestinian people in Gaza,” Mitchell told Al Jazeera.

Some Muslims even organised a counter Iftar right in front of the White House to protest Biden's pro-Israel policy.

Several Muslim leaders were expected to attend Tuesday’s meeting with Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, Muslim government officials and national security leaders. The White House did not name them. Some people who had attended events in previous years, such as Mayor Abdullah Hammoud of Dearborn, Michigan, were not invited.

The cancelled iftar underscores Biden’s struggle to stem growing anger in US Arab and Muslim communities over his unconditional support for Israel.

The Israeli Occupation Forces have killed close to 33,000 Palestinians since Oct 7. Moreover, around 1.8 million people are starving because of the Zionist blockade of Gaza.

The United Security Council (UNSC) and International Court of Justice (ICJ) both have called for immediate ceasefire and unhindered humanitarian aid into Gaza. While the Zionist regime of Netanyahu continues to ignore UNSC resolution and ICJ order, the United States, totally against the global wish, is extending moral, diplomatic, financial and also military support to Israel.

 

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