Thread: Trump to host Ramadan dinner

President Donald Trump said last month “Ramadan reminds us of the richness Muslims add to the religious tapestry of American life.” | Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Trump to host Ramadan dinner


By ANDREW RESTUCCIA and NAHAL TOOSI
06/02/2018 07:33 PM EDT


President Donald Trump will host an iftar dinner at the White House next week to recognize the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, according to a White House official, a departure from last year’s decision not to host the traditional post-sundown meal.

The iftar dinner is scheduled for Wednesday. The White House official declined to provide a list of attendees.

During the month of Ramadan, Muslims fast from dawn to sunset and they break the fast with a meal known as an iftar.

The White House faced criticism last year for neglecting to host an iftar dinner, breaking with a long-standing tradition embraced by Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama.

Trump has a tense relationship with the Muslim community. During the presidential campaign, Trump called for a "total and complete" ban on all Muslims entering the United States. As president, he has restricted citizens from several Muslim-majority countries from entering the United States.

In a statement issued last month marking the start of Ramadan, Trump said, “Ramadan reminds us of the richness Muslims add to the religious tapestry of American life.”

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/...e-house-618763

The White House official declined to provide a list of attendees.

Why?

Same reason they didn't provide a list of attendees for any of the other White House events. I don't recall the White House providing a list of attendees on any of their dinner events. They didn't give one out for the dinners with the French President.

Originally Posted by Judy

Same reason they didn't provide a list of attendees for any of the other White House events. I don't recall the White House providing a list of attendees on any of their dinner events. They didn't give one out for the dinners with the French President.

That doesn't really answer the question.

Then what was really your question?

Originally Posted by Judy

Same reason they didn't provide a list of attendees for any of the other White House events. I don't recall the White House providing a list of attendees on any of their dinner events. They didn't give one out for the dinners with the French President.

The complete guest list as provided by the White House for the state dinner honoring French President Emmanuel Macron.

President Trump and first lady Melania Trump
French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife, Brigitte Macron
Jerome Adams, the surgeon general, and Lacey Adams
Gérard Araud, ambassador of France to the United States, and Pascal Blondeau
Bernard Arnault, of LVMH, and Hélène Arnault
Nicole Belloubet, the French minister of justice
Philippe Besson
Jean-Michel Blanquer, the French minister of national education
John Bolton, national security adviser, and Gretchen Bolton
Thierry Breton
Christian Cambon, president of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the French Senate
Laurence des Cars, of Musée d’Orsay
Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) and Laura Cassidy
Tim Cook, of Apple, and Lisa Jackson
Pierre-Olivier Costa
Sarah Coulson and Douglas Bradburn
Christian Dargnat
Jean-Yves Le Drian, French minister for Europe and foreign affairs
Meghan Duggan
Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards (D) and Donna Edwards
Laurence Engel
Philippe Étienne, diplomatic adviser to Macron
Barbara Frugier, international communication adviser to Macron
Joseph Hagin, White House deputy chief of staff
David Hamilton and Catharine Hamilton
Marillyn Hewson, of Lockheed Martin, and James Hewson
Fiona Hill, National Security Council, and Kenneth Keen
Stuart Holliday, of Meridian International Center, and Gwen Holliday
John F. Kelly, White House chief of staff, and Karen Kelly
Sen. John Neely Kennedy (R-La.) and Rebecca Kennedy
Henry Kissinger and Nancy Kissinger
Henry Kravis and Marie-Josée Kravis
Lawrence Kudlow, director of the National Economic Council, and Judith Kudlow
Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump
Christine Lagarde, managing director of the International Monetary Fund
Ronald Lauder and Jo Carole Lauder
Aurélien Lechevallier, deputy diplomatic adviser to President Macron
Maine Gov. Paul LePage (R) and Lauren LePage
Christopher Liddell, White House deputy chief of staff, and Renee Liddell
Bruno Le Maire, French minister of the economy and finance
Jim Mattis, secretary of defense
Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and Judy McCarthy
Jamie McCourt, U.S. ambassador to France
Ronna McDaniel, chair of the Republican National Committee, and Patrick McDaniel
Stephen Miller, White House senior adviser
Emmanuel Miquel
Aaron Wess Mitchell, assistant secretary of state, and Elizabeth Mitchell
Steven T. Mnuchin, secretary of the treasury, and Louise Linton
Mary Morton, of the National Gallery of Art, and Keith Forman
Rupert Murdoch and Jerry Hall Murdoch
Kirstjen Nielsen, secretary of homeland security, and Chad Wolf
Florence Parly, French minister for the armed forces
Vice President Pence and Karen Pence
Emmanuel Perrotin
Thomas Pesquet
Archbishop Christophe Pierre, the apostolic nuncio to the United States
Hervé Pierre Braillard
Mike Pompeo, director of the Central Intelligence Agency, and Susan Pompeo
Dina Powell and David McCormick
Gen. Benoît Puga
John G. Roberts Jr., chief justice of the United States, and Jane Roberts
Adm. Bernard Rogel
John F.W. Rogers, of Goldman Sachs, and Deborah Lehr
Virginia Rometty, of IBM, and Mark Anthony Rometty
Wilbur Ross, secretary of commerce, and Hilary Ross
Rep. Edward R. Royce (R-Calif.) and Marie Royce
David Rubenstein, of the Carlyle Group, and Gabrielle Rubenstein
Rep. Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.), the speaker of the House, and Janna Ryan
Sarah Huckabee Sanders, White House press secretary, and Bryan Sanders
Marielle de Sarnez, president of foreign affairs committee for French National Assembly
Guy Savoy
Stephen Schwarzman, of the Blackstone Group, and Christine Schwarzman
Thomas A. Shannon Jr., undersecretary of state
John Shuster
Annette Simmons and Gerald Fronterhouse
Frederick Smith, of FedEx and Diane Smith
John J. Sullivan, deputy secretary of state, and Graciela Rodriguez
Julie Sweet and Chad Sweet
Hugo Verges
Benedict Wolf and Ursula Wolf

Originally Posted by Judy

Then what was really your question?

Perhaps you would find CoQ10 helpful.

Need a link, JD2 for the guest list you posted. Thx.

Originally Posted by MW

Perhaps you would find CoQ10 helpful.

What is that?

Originally Posted by MW

Why?

Muslim groups will be absent as Donald Trump hosts Iftar dinner

Trump broke a White House tradition celebrating the end of Ramadan last year but despite a U-turn American Muslims have little enthusiasm for breaking bread with the president

Sabrina Siddiqui in Washington
@SabrinaSiddiqui
Wed 6 Jun 2018 06.00 EDTLast modified on Wed 6 Jun 2018 11.46 EDT

As Donald Trump hosts his inaugural Iftar dinner as president on Wednesday to mark the holy month of Ramadan, Muslims in the nation’s capital will hold a counter event just steps away from the White House.

The lack of enthusiasm among American Muslims over Trump’s unexpected decision to hold a White House Iftar underscores the community’s contentious relationship with the US president.

Leading Muslim groups in Washington who attended the event under previous administrations said Trump’s continued targeting of Islam and its followers made engagement with his administration a futile, if not impossible task, given the president’s history of incendiary comments about Muslims.

“I wouldn’t anticipate that any credible mainstream American Muslim organizations or leaders would be invited or agree to attend, given the administration’s Islamophobic and white supremacist positions and policies,” said Ibrahim Hooper, the spokesman for the Council on American Islamic Relations.

“There’s always this argument that it’s better to be at the table … but it’s getting increasingly difficult to make.”

Last year, Trump broke with decades of precedent by forgoing the annual Iftar dinner – a bipartisan tradition that formally began with Bill Clinton in the 1990s but has conceptual roots tracing as far back as under Thomas Jefferson in 1805.

When the White House confirmed earlier this week that Trump would, in fact, throw the event this year, most Muslim civic organizations were caught off guard. The White House declined to provide a list of attendees when reached by the Guardian, although the press secretary, Sarah Sanders, said roughly 30 to 40 guests were expected.

Muslim leaders and advocates who had typically been on the guest list in years past said they were not invited and only learned of Trump’s plans to hold the dinner through press reports.


“There has been no real engagement, no real effort to even invite members of our faith communities, to have conversations with the White House or administration,” said Hoda Hawa, the director of policy and advocacy at the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC).

MPAC, which works to promote pro-Muslim policies in government and elevate Muslim voices across various industries, was not invited by Trump’s White House despite having representatives at the Iftar under previous administrations. Irrespective of the snub, Hawa said she could not foresee a scenario in which the group would have found it appropriate to attend under the current president.

“His politics have shown us, not just as Muslims but as Americans, that he is a president and a person who does not appreciate the contributions of Muslims to America,” she said.

For Muslims across America, the wounds of Trump’s hostile rhetoric toward Muslims both as a candidate and since taking office remain raw.

Few are willing to forget Trump’s vow during the 2016 campaign to ban all Muslims from entering the US, nor his flirtation with the idea of a Muslim registry. Then-candidate Trump infamously declared “Islam hates us”, falsely claimed Muslims celebrating on the rooftops of New Jersey after the September 11 terrorist attacks, and criticized Barack Obama for visiting a mosque.

The weight of the presidency has done little to rein in Trump’s antagonistic posture toward Muslims.

In one of his first acts from the Oval Office, Trump imposed a travel ban on several Muslim-majority countries and indefinitely suspended the US refugee program. Several iterations of the policy have since been mired by legal challenges, with its ultimate fate facing an imminent ruling by the supreme court.

In November, Trump drew widespread condemnation for retweeting a series of anti-Muslim videos from the ultra*nationalist far-right group Britain First. He has also appointed a number of officials within his administration who have a known record of making derogatory statements about Muslims or Islam.

Last week, John Bolton, Trump’s national security adviser, drew scrutiny for bringing on board a new chief of staff who previously worked for a thinktank that promoted anti-Muslim propaganda.

“This is not an administration to engage, this is an administration to survive under and work toward the future,” said Linda Sarsour, a prominent Muslim American activist and founder of MPower Change, a Muslim-led social and racial justice organization.

The impact of Trump’s rhetoric about communities of color spilled into view with another event set to take place at the White House this week: a celebration of the Philadelphia Eagles, the 2018 Super Bowl championship team.

The president’s attacks on predominantly black athletes who kneel during the national anthem, as part of an effort to draw attention to police brutality and criminal justice, have led many players to boycott events at the White House.

When it became clear that several members of the Eagles planned to do the same, Trump abruptly disinvited the entire team.

The White House Iftar has not been without its controversy in the past. A contingent of Muslims advocated boycotting the event during some of the Obama years, citing his administration’s expansion of drone strikes, domestic spying and support for Israel during the 2014 crisis on the Gaza Strip.

While Muslim groups maintain even today such concerns were valid, comparing it to where the community stands today is like night and day.
“Yes, we disagreed with Obama on many policies, but there was an opportunity to engage,” said Sarsour.

“This time around, from my vantage point as someone who has very deep ties to the mainstream Muslim community, there aren’t two sides. No one should be attending an Iftar with this administration.”

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/...s-iftar-dinner