Eid Greetings From President Obama

Michelle and I extend our greetings for a happy Eid-ul-Adha to Muslims
worldwide and wish safe travels to those performing Hajj.  This year,
nearly three million pilgrims from more than 160 countries - including
the United States - have gathered in Mecca and neighboring sites to
perform the Hajj rituals and stand together in prayer.

On Eid, Muslims around the world will commemorate Abraham’s
willingness to sacrifice his son, and distribute food to those less
fortunate - a reminder of the shared values and the common roots of
three of the world's major religions.

On behalf of the American people, we extend our best wishes during
this Hajj season – Eid Mubarak and Hajj Mabrour.


http://www.isna.net/articles/News/Eid-Greetings-From-President-Obama.aspx

Obama to visit Istiqbal mosque during Indonesia trip

President Barack Obama will visit the largest mosque in Jakarta and make a major outdoor speech when he makes his twice-postponed visit to Indonesia next month, the White House said on Thursday.

The U.S. President, who spent four years in the country as a boy, will stress that Indonesia is at the intersection of U.S. efforts to reach out to the Muslim world and to connect with dynamic, fast-growing southeast Asian economies.

The president will arrive in Indonesia on Nov. 9 after visiting India, and will have talks and a press conference with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, the White House said.

US outreach to Muslim communities

The Istiqlal Mosque in Jakarta

The next day, he will honor the Heroes Day holiday, marking a key battle in Indonesia's independence struggle, then visit the Istiqlal Mosque in Jakarta, before making a speech, for which U.S. officials are seeking an outdoor venue.

"He'll have a chance to talk about the partnership that we're building with Indonesia," said Ben Rhodes, a U.S. deputy national security advisor, noting that Obama was "popular" in Jakarta because of his boyhood stay.

The president will also "talk about some of the themes of democracy and development and our outreach to Muslim communities around the world, while also speaking of Indonesia's pluralism and tolerance as well."

Obama's speech may become his most high profile chance to discourse on U.S. relations with Islam in a foreign country since his landmark speech to the world's Muslims in Cairo in June 2009.

Rhodes cautioned against the idea that Obama needed to renew his commitment for a "new beginning" with Islam, after a furor over plans to build an Islamic cultural center near the site of the Sept. 11 attacks in New York.

He said that Obama frequently visited mosques on his travels to Muslim majority nations, and had always intended to visit the Istiqlal mosque.

Political, security and economic cooperation

The visit will follow reports that the White House cancelled plans for Obama to visit the Sikh Golden temple in Amritsar, India as he would have to wear headgear that could fan erroneous claims by critics that he is a Muslim.

U.S. officials have not directly responded to the reports, saying instead that the president's schedule was tightly compacted and dictated by his goals for each leg of a foreign trip and not other concerns.

Jeffrey Bader, Obama's top Asia policy hand, said that the president would formally launch a U.S.-Indonesia comprehensive partnership, designed to deepen cooperation on political, security and economic issues, in Jakarta.

"We have tried to highlight Indonesia's growing importance in this administration," Bader said, noting Indonesia's membership of the G20, its status as the largest Muslim-majority nation and key role in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

Obama had planned to visit Indonesia twice before this year, but was forced to cancel in March as he pushed for final passage of his health care law and in June after an environmental disaster unfolded around the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

But his schedule in his one-night stay will be so packed in Indonesia that he will be unable to visit many of his boyhood haunts that he had hoped to show his family.

Obama's wife, First Lady Michelle Obama is expected to travel to Indonesia, but his daughters will stay at home as they will be at school.

Obama lived with his late mother and step father for four years in Indonesia and has spoken of his warm feelings for the country.

President Obama Offers Ramadan Greetings

 In recognition of the first day of Ramadan, President Obama issued a statement wishing Muslims in America and around the world a Happy Ramadan.  In his letter, the President spoke to what he feels Ramadan represents in America.

 

"Ramadan is a celebration of a faith known for great diversity and racial equality.  And here in the United States, Ramadan is a reminder that Islam has always been part of America and that American Muslims have made extraordinary contributions to our country," said the President.

 

"ISNA thanks the Administration for continuing to engage with the Muslim community and share the positive contributions of Muslims with the rest of the America,"  said ISNA President Dr. Ingrid Mattson." 

 

ISNA Vice President Imam Mohamed Magid will join Dr. Mattson today, Friday August 13, for an iftar hosted by President Obama and his family at the White House. 

 

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton also issued a statement of Ramadan greetings and will host an iftar at the State Department for Muslim leaders and community members from across the nation.

 

To read the full statement written by President Obama or Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, please visit theWhite House and Department of State websites. 

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Obama wades into mosque debate

US President Barack Obama is under siege after speaking out in favor of building a mosque near Ground Zero, a stance that has elevated the contentious issue to the presidential level ahead of a difficult election season for Democrats.

Obama came out in favor of the proposal for the first time Friday night during a White House iftar dinner in the holy month of Ramadan.

"... Muslims have the same right to practice their religion as anyone else in this country. That includes the right to build a place of worship and a community center on private property in lower Manhattan, in accordance with local laws and ordinances," Obama said.

"This is America, and our commitment to religious freedom must be unshakable. The principle that people of all faiths are welcome in this country, and will not be treated differently by their government, is essential to who we are."

In a highly charged election-year debate, Obama surely knew that his words would not only make headlines in the US, but also be heard by Muslims worldwide and find favor with them.

Thus his words were an effort to reach out to the global Muslim community. The guests at Friday's dinner included ambassadors and officials from numerous nations including Saudi Arabia.

Obama's position runs counter to the opinions of the majority of Americans, according to polls. A CNN/Opinion Research poll released this week found that nearly 70 percent of Americans opposed the mosque plan while just 29 percent approved. An AOL poll Saturday found that of those voting online, 88 percent said they were “completely” against it.

This may explain why a number of Democratic politicians — all up for re-election in November — have shied away from the controversy.

Some 9/11 victims' advocates and Republicans have strongly condemned Obama's support for the mosque, which would be part of a $100 million Islamic community center two blocks from where nearly 3,000 people perished when hijacked jetliners slammed into the World Trade Center towers on Sept. 11, 2001.  They also say the plan is "insensitive" to victims' relatives.

But while the president called the World Trade Center site "hallowed grounds," he also said the proper way to honor it was to apply American values.

""Our capacity to show not merely tolerance, but respect towards those who are different from us and that way of life, that quintessentially American creed, stands in stark contrast to the nihilism of those who attacked us on that September morning, and who continue to plot against us today."

Obama's remarks drew prompt responses from those who oppose it.

"President Obama is wrong," Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., told reporters. "It is insensitive and uncaring for the Muslim community to build a mosque in the shadow of Ground Zero. While the Muslim community has the right to build the mosque, they are abusing that right by needlessly offending so many people who have suffered so much."

Right-wing politicians such as former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich have opposed the mosque. Palin said this month: "Doesn't it stab you in the heart, as it does ours throughout the heartland?"

Gingrich in July called the mosque proposal a "test of the timidity, passivity and historic ignorance of American elites."

But James Zogby, president of the Arab American Institute, praised the president for finally weighing in with his opinion. "The opposition to the Muslim Community Center ... in Manhattan is based on bigotry and is being fueled by opportunists on the right.

"Look at the line-up arrayed against the center — it's the same cast of characters who have been opposed to all things Arab and Muslim for years now," Zogby told Arab News.  "They've made an industry of their intolerance ... Their defaming and deliberate mischaracterization of the work of (the imam) Faisal Abul Raouf is disgraceful."

He said he hoped that the president's words would "toughen up" those who have been silent on the issue.

Hussein Ibish, senior fellow at the American Task Force on Palestine, said Obama's opinion was important for the nation. "It's extremely important that President Obama has joined ... so many other national leaders in defending the core American traditions of religious freedom and tolerance.

"Since there are millions of Muslim Americans, their rights as equal citizens have to be defended by all real American leaders.  It unfortunately became necessary for the president to make this point clearly and firmly to the entire country," said Ibish.

 "The foes of the Islamic center have been trying to drag Obama into this debate, and some have urged Obama to avoid wading into it. But now he has, and he isn't hedging a bit: He's saying that opposing the group's right to build the Islamic center is, in essence, un-American. I look forward to the response from the project's opponents,” noted Greg Sargent, in Saturday's Washington Post.

"Obama's strenuous defense of the 'Ground Zero mosque' is significant not just in bolstering the credibility of his message to the Muslim world, but it also engages him directly in the political fight against far right extremists here at home who wish to erode the American values at stake in the fight over the mosque," wrote Faiz Shakir, in Think Progress.

But Jennifer Rubin, calling his decision an abomination, wrote in Commentary: "... his sympathies for the Muslim World take precedence over those, such as they are, for his fellow citizens."

The imam of the proposed Cordoba House Islamic Center, Feisal Abdul Rauf, has promoted the center as a place to foster religious tolerance, Islamic heritage and healing.

Rauf has been vilified by some GOP opponents of the mosque, but he was one of the loudest Muslim voices condemning the Sept. 11 attacks and was a frequent adviser to President George W. Bush.

ARAB NEWS