| WHITE HOUSE, PENTAGON CELEBRATE ISLAM
AS BODIES ARE STILL DISCOVERED IN REMAINS OF TRADE CENTER |
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Hosting a dinner celebrating the holy month of Ramadan, President George W. Bush addresses ambassadors from Islamic nations and other distinguished guests in the State Room Nov. 19. "America has close and important relations with many Islamic nations So it is fitting for America to honor your friendship and the traditions of a great faith by hosting this Iftaar at the White House," said the President in his remarks. White House photo by Tina Hager. |
President's Message for Ramadan
Message from the President
November 15, 2001
As the new moon signals the holy month of Ramadan, I extend warm greetings to Muslims throughout the United States and around the world.
The Islam that we know is a faith devoted to the worship of one God, as revealed through The Holy Qu'ran. It teaches the value and importance of charity, mercy, and peace. And it is one of the fastest growing religions in America, with millions of American believers today.
The American Muslim community is as varied as the many Muslim communities across the world. Muslims from diverse backgrounds pray together in mosques all across our great land. And American Muslims serve in every walk of life, including our Armed Forces.
The Holy Qu'ran says: "Piety does not lie in turning your face to the East or West. Piety lies in believing in God." (2:177). Americans now have turned to acts of charity, sending relief to the Afghan people, who have suffered for so many years. America is proud to play a leading role in the humanitarian relief efforts in Afghanistan, through airdrops and truck convoys of food, medicine, and other much-needed supplies. And today we are committed to working for the long-term reconstruction of that troubled land.
We send our sincerest wishes to Muslims in America and around the world for health, prosperity, and happiness during Ramadan and throughout the coming year.
Remarks by the President at White House Ramadan Dinner
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
For Immediate Release November 19, 2001
The State Dining Room
5:50 P.M. EST
THE PRESIDENT: Good evening, and welcome to the White House. I'm so honored to welcome such distinguished guests and ambassadors during the holy month of Ramadan.
America is made better by millions of Muslim citizens. America has close and important relations with many Islamic nations. So it is fitting for America to honor your friendship and the traditions of a great faith by hosting this Iftaar at the White House.
I want to thank our Secretary of State for being here, as well as members of my administration. I want to thank the ambassadors for taking time in this holy month to come to join us in this feast.
Ramadan is a time of fasting and prayer for the Muslim faithful. So tonight we are reminded of God's greatness and His commandments to live in peace and to help neighbors in need. According to Muslim teachings, God first revealed His word in the holy Qur'an to the prophet, Muhammad, during the month of Ramadan. That word has guided billions of believers across the centuries, and those believers built a culture of learning and literature and science.
All the world continues to benefit from this faith and its achievements. 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. We share a commitment to family, to protect and love our children. We share a belief in God's justice, and man's moral responsibility. And we share the same hope for a future of peace. We have much in common and much to learn from one another.
This evening, we gather in a spirit of peace and cooperation. I appreciate your support of our objectives in the campaign against terrorism. Tonight that campaign continues in Afghanistan, so that the people of Afghanistan will soon know peace. The terrorists have no home in any faith. Evil has no holy days.
This evening we also gather in the spirit of generosity and charity. As this feast breaks the Ramadan fast, America is also sharing our table with the people of Afghanistan. We are proud to play a leading role in humanitarian relief efforts, with air drops and truck convoys of food and medicine. America's children are donating their dollars to the Afghan children. And my administration is committed to help reconstruct that country, and to support a stable government that represents all of the people of Afghanistan.
We are working for more opportunity and a better life for the people of Afghanistan, and all the people of the Islamic world. America respects people of all faiths, and America seeks peace with people of all faiths.
I thank you for your friendship, and I wish you a blessed Ramadan
Muslims 'Enrich America' and Its Military, Says Wolfowitz
By Gerry J. Gilmore
American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, Dec. 3, 2001 -- U.S. service members of Muslim faith observed the end of the day's Ramadan fast Nov. 30 at an interfaith dinner at the Pentagon.
Deputy Defense Secretary Paul D. Wolfowitz was the guest speaker at the Iftar dinner, a communal Muslim meal held after sundown at the end of each day of the holy month. Muslims may not eat or drink in the daytime during Ramadan.
Wolfowitz told his audience he was honored to attend the dinner, the fifth annual. No stranger to Muslim customs, the deputy defense secretary was U.S. ambassador to Indonesia -- the largest country in the Muslim world -- for three years during the Reagan administration.
He remarked: "It is especially gratifying for me to be able to share this evening with you and share this meal with you … men and women of the U.S. military, who, as President Bush has said, contribute not just to the military might of our country, but to its meaning and its conscience, and its soul."
For centuries, Muslims have enriched the world "through their contributions to history, literature, architecture and mathematics," Wolfowitz noted.
Today, millions of Muslims enrich America and its military, he added. The co-sponsor of the dinner, the American Muslim Armed Forces and Veterans Affairs Council, estimates that some 15,000 U.S. service members are of the Muslim faith.
Wolfowitz remarked that "the campaign to bring peace to the people of Afghanistan" has continued through Ramadan this year … "because, as the President (Bush) reminded us … 'Evil has no holy days.'"
Six times in the past decade, U.S. military men and women have risked their lives to help Muslims in Kuwait, northern Iraq, Somalia, Kosovo, Bosnia, and now, Afghanistan, Wolfowitz noted.
In today's war against global terrorism, Wolfowitz remarked that America and its allies around the world "are fighting against an evil that arose from an irrationally, and ultimately selfish, attempt to appropriate a great religion."
He noted that the terrorists responsible for the Sept. 11 attacks on America "hijacked a country which is now being liberated."
Those terrorists also "attempted to hijack a great religion, but each time faithful Muslims gather in prayer and in peace, you reclaim your faith and reaffirm the great gift that Islam has been to humanity through the centuries," Wolfowitz said.
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