Thread: Department of Defense celebrates Iftar meal at the Pentagon

Department of Defense celebrates Iftar meal at the Pentagon

July 15, 2013
By Julia Henning

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  Representative Keith Ellison , guest speaker

WASHINGTON (Army News Service, July 15, 2013) -- The Department of Defense celebrated its 15th Iftar meal, July 12, at the Pentagon.

Attending the event were senior defense leaders, White House and congressional staffers, foreign dignitaries, defense attachés, imams, Gold Star families, and Muslims who work in the defense community.

"The month of Ramadan focuses on a lot of things," said Col. Thomas Waynick, the Pentagon chaplain. "Among them, focusing one's heart away from worldly activities, the cleansing of one's soul to free it from harmful impurities, and the practices of self-discipline, self-control, sacrifice and empathy, especially with the less fortunate, and thus encouraging generosity and charity. These things are common to many of the world's religions."

During the month of Ramadan, which this year runs from July 8 through Aug. 7, Muslims are required to fast during daylight hours. The Iftar meal, following sundown, is when Muslims break their fast for the day. In 1999, the Pentagon Chaplain's office first hosted such a dinner to show solidarity with and support for the Islamic community. They have been doing so each year since.

Representative Keith Ellison of Minnesota, a Muslim, was the guest speaker at this year's Iftar meal.

The lawmaker spoke about serving humanity. Serving others by tutoring, visiting shut-ins, volunteering time to feed the homeless and building relationships with people less fortunate will help change America, Ellison said.

"I would challenge you to think creatively about what you can do on an individual basis to reorient our society one engagement at a time," Ellison said.

Ellison's son serves in the Army. Having that connection to the military, and being a Muslim, makes an Iftar meal at the Pentagon a significant event for him, Ellison said.

"I worry about [my son] and I want him to be around people who care about him," Ellison said. "He's Muslim, like his father is. I want him to be in a good environment. I feel like coming here [to the Pentagon Iftar] is very special."

The significance of celebrating Iftar at the Pentagon is two-fold, said Air Force Col. Shakir Kahn. First, it informs Muslim Pentagon employees that the Department of Defense supports them. Second, it also allows the senior leadership at the Pentagon a view into the Muslim community.

Command Sgt. Maj. Sultan Mohammed said he believes that the yearly Iftar meals at the Pentagon show that the Department of Defense continues to feel solidarity with the Muslim community, and that healing has happened since 9/11.

"It just shows that America is recovering from its wounds and overcoming its fear of the image that's been portrayed of Muslims," Mohammed said. "We [are] all in one Army, and that when we [were] attacked [on 9/11], not only was America attacked, but Muslims [were] attacked. For us to be able to sit down at an Iftar like this shows [we are] healing. We understand and we appreciate each other and it's time to heal. It's actually taken too long."

Those in attendance at the Pentagon Iftar were not all Muslim. Steven Redmann, executive director of U.S. Army Headquarters Services, said that though he is not Muslim, he was able to learn from the congressman's message about service, and find common themes that aligned with his Catholic faith.

"We need to respect [Muslims fasting during Ramadan] and understand why they do that," Redman said. "If we could all just be more accepting, I think we'd all be better off."

At the Pentagon, approximately 30-40 Department of Defense personnel make up a core group of Muslim worshipers, Waynick said.

Across the Army, there are more than 1,600 Muslims, said Lt. Col. Claude Brittian, the deputy Pentagon chaplain. He said that number is not exact, however, because many Muslims do not declare their religion for fear of being ostracized.
http://www.army.mil/article/107420/

July 22, 2013
The Fatal Fallacy of Muslim Outreach

ByPamela Geller

When the government engages in "Muslim Outreach," what are its objectives? To make us safe? To undermine the vicious ideology that commands our conquest, subjugation, and oppression? Or to appease and capitulate to these supremacist groups? Clearly it is the last, and the consequences of such foolhardy and delusional efforts render us less safe, as in the case of the Boston Marathon jihad bombers, Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.

Those devout Muslims in Boston designed bombs to tear through the flesh and bone of babies, mothers, and families, and only a couple of brave politicians have shown interest in the motive. Is that what we have become as a nation? A people?

The Boston bombers have said they slaughtered Americans in the cause of Islam.

Yet it was only Representative Louis Gohmert (R-TX) who has shown any interest in the implications of this. Gohmert is a hero, a singular man of courage. He pressed FBI director Robert Mueller last month until finally Mueller admitted that the only contact that the FBI had with the Boston bombers' terror mosque was "outreach."

Outreach is a euphemism for submission. With the Boston jihad bombings, the mosquerade of "outreach" achieved its goal of deceiving and "subduing" the dhimmi FBI. Americans were murdered in cold blood, but the FBI's "outreach" with the terror mosque was successful.

Gohmert, a member of the House Judiciary Committee, also blasted the FBI in April over how political correctness prevented investigators from honing in on the Boston bombing suspects. The Obama administration scrapped all mention of jihad and Islam from all FBI training manuals. That scrubbing came at the insistence of Muslim groups with which the FBI and other agencies were engaged in "outreach."

And in Tennessee, under the guise of "Muslim Outreach," Obama's Department of Justice has vowed to criminalize postings on social media that offend Muslims. So Muslim Outreach has become the apparatus for Sharia implementation. U.S. Attorney Bill Killian led a seminar there recently about how civil rights laws could be used to criminalize criticism of Islam. Will Killian vow to criminalize the vicious Jew-hatred commanded in the Quran? Will Killian ban the hate speech in the Quran? No, but he has vowed to criminalize postings on social media that criticize Islam or offend Muslims.

In January 2012, I received the first in a series of DOJ bundles in response to my FOIA request filed close to a year before that. Specifically, I asked for "records relating to the meeting of the 'Monthly Outreach Meeting' with Muslim and Arab groups at the Civil Rights Division. Specifically, include lists of attendees at each monthly meeting, the agenda of each meeting and any minutes or summary prepared subsequent to each meeting. Please also specifically note the meetings at which the Attorney General of the United States attended."

The principal impact of reading through the material was the sheer bulk of it. Hundreds and hundreds of pages of e-mails, documenting nearly daily friendly contact, consultation, cooperation, and collaboration between the DOJ and Hamas-linked Muslim Brotherhood groups. One thing was clear: the Muslim Brotherhood had fully infiltrated command and control at the Department of Justice civil rights division.

What struck me almost immediately was the casual familiarity between the Muslim Brotherhood-linked IslamicSociety of North America (ISNA) and senior officials of the Department of Justice, all the way up to Assistant Attorney General Tom Perez. They discuss lunch, vacations, job changes -- always with the Muslim Brotherhood groups pushing their narrative, even in these casual exchanges.

In a sane and rational society, these Muslim Brotherhood-linked groups would be marginalized. Instead, the Justice Department was busy with "Outreach" to them. They're effectively using the DOJ as their legal arm.

There is no similar outreach, needless to say, to pro-freedom groups. But we will never give up. Mr. Killian, Mr. Holder, Mr. Mueller, Mr. Obama, we shall defend our freedom, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender.