Rabat - President Obama hosted an Iftar dinner at the White House on Monday night to celebrate Ramadan, the Muslim holy month.
Rabat – President Obama hosted an Iftar dinner at the White House on Monday night to celebrate Ramadan, the Muslim holy month.
About 40 Muslim Americans belonging to the diplomatic community and members of Congress were welcomed into the East Wing to celebrate the start of the holiday.
Speaking to his guests, Obama said, “We affirm that whatever our faith, we are all one family. As Americans, we insist that nobody should be targeted because of who they are, what they look like, who they love, how they worship,” the president said, adding that, “We stand united against these hateful acts.”
The president also said that the holiday dinner “is also a reminder of the freedoms that bind us together as Americans, including the freedom of religion — that inviolable right to practice our faiths freely.”
Following the traditional Athan Muslim call to prayer, the guests broke their 16-hour day of fasting in the Grand Foyer.
The guests then moved to the State Dining Room for a “ halal meal with the President,” then welcomed into the East Wing where “a copy of the Quran owned by President Thomas Jefferson, one of the founding fathers of the United States, was on display from the Library of Congress.”
