The White House was warned by Muslim leaders This invitation to President Biden’s Ramadan reception may be declined because of his support for Israel’s war against Hamas.
As a result, the 81-year-old president’s aides are preparing to host a scaled-down version of the event marking the Islamic holiday of Eid al-Fitr, according to Politico, and potentially limiting invitations to Biden administration officials and Muslim ambassadors. majority nations.
“I don’t know how they’re going to be able to do that this year. A lot of people are just not going to go,” said one Muslim leader, who has previously attended Ramadan receptions at the Biden White House. told point of sale.
In recent years, Biden has hosted hundreds of Muslim community leaders in the spacious East Room of the White House for the annual event commemorating the end of the holiest month in the Islamic calendar.
The event was held virtually in 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In 2017, former President Donald Trump broke with 20 years of White House tradition by choosing not to host a Ramadan event.
Trump, 77, was going to host Ramadan receptions in 2018 and 2019, attended primarily by foreign diplomats, according to Politico.
Muslim Public Affairs Council President Salam al-Marayati told the outlet that there was “no appetite” in the Muslim community to celebrate Ramadan with Biden.
Biden’s support among Arab Americans has subsequently tanked of its support for Israeli military operations in Gaza.
Only 17.4% of Arab American voters said they would vote for Biden in 2024, according to a John Zogby Strategies poll commissioned by the Arab American Institute last October.
In 2020, the same poll measured Arab Americans’ support for Biden at 59%.
A dozen Muslim and Arab American elected officials, officials and community leaders from Michigan postponed meeting with Biden campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez in January, after the planned summit sparked “outrage” from the community, with some invited participants against Israeli military action in Gaza expressing disapproval that campaign officials were sent to the state rather than among political decision-makers.
The following month, the White House sent a delegation senior Biden administration officials in Michigan, one of whom, deputy national security adviser Jon Finer, acknowledged “missteps” in the administration’s support for Israel’s war against terrorists in Hamas.
More than 100,000 residents of Michigan – a state with a large Muslim and Arab American voting bloc – voted “no strings attached” in the state’s Democratic presidential primary last month, in protest against the president.
