First Lady Hosts Third Annual Eid Celebration

By Mofid Deak, Washington File Staff Writer

Washington -- "Eid mubarak," Arabic for happy feast, said First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton as she hosted her third annual White House celebration of the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan at the White House January 21.

"It is a special treat for me to have you here and to know that this is an extraordinary time of gathering and recollection and rejoicing," she told a packed room of Muslim Americans who were invited to the White House to celebrate the occasion with the First Lady.

Thanking the organizers of the event, Mrs. Clinton said: "I know how important it is to highlight the contributions of Muslim Americans to our great efforts in this country, and to prepare ourselves for a future that is truly the best we can offer to our children and grandchildren."

"Today we celebrate Eid ... by honoring the remarkable contributions of Islam that have enabled millions and millions of Muslims around the world to endure and thrive through the ages and enrich us all," the First Lady said to over 150 guests, who included heads of major American Muslim organizations, community leaders, dignitaries, and other Muslims from around the country.

Mrs. Clinton started the tradition in 1996 to recognize the growing importance of Islam and the increasing numbers of Muslims in the United States today. Islam, often described as the fastest growing religion in America, has been transformed over the past two decades from an insular faith to a culturally diverse religious movement, gathering the strength, confidence and sheer numbers to assert itself as never before in the United States.

The number of Muslims in the U.S. is the subject of considerable debate and no authoritative census has been undertaken. The Washington-based Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), estimates the overall population of U.S. Muslims to be more than 6 million, up from 2 million three decades ago.

Mrs. Clinton also praised Islam's "universal values -- love of family and community, mutual respect, education, and the deepest yearning of all -- to live in peace -- values that can strengthen us as a people and strengthen the Unites States as a nation."

She also spoke about her experience dealing with Muslims in their own countries which she and President Clinton visited in the past six years, including their most recent trip to Gaza and the West Bank. "I was very pleased to be part of the first American presidential visit" to the Palestinian areas," Mrs. Clinton stated.

Speaking before the gathering about his experience growing up Muslim American, Omar Farook, a young American Muslim of Woodson High School in Washington, said that he is witnessing a positive change in Americans' attitudes towards Islam. "I witnessed increased tolerance observing the month of Ramadan this year; I was able to observe fasting and share my beliefs with my peers from different faiths," he related.

Reminiscing about the past decade in which he said there was "a lot of stereotyping of Muslims in the U.S. media," Farook said, "I decided to help increase awareness of Islam and its practices by starting to explain to my peers at school the concept of fasting, the celebration of eid, and by doing presentations to my class about what it means to be a Muslim."

The results, he said, "were generally positive, leading to a deeper level of education for all of us in the process."

He also acknowledged the importance of the event at the White House. "The fact that I am standing here speaking about the month of fasting following the celebration of eid," he remarked, "is proof that tolerance is spreading in America."

Sharifa Alkhateeb, Vice-President of the Northern American Council For Muslim Women, and a major force behind organizing the White House event, hailed the First Lady's efforts to increase understanding of Islam in America, saying "the First Lady has made a point of understanding Muslims in general and Muslim women in particular. She cares ... and she encouraged us as Muslim women in this country to get involved at the national and local levels," said Alkhateeb, who is of Yemeni and Czech origin. She added: "as Muslims in America, we appreciate her sincere efforts and activities that show that she has a soft heart for Muslims and Islam."

Emphasizing the point about the transformation of Islam, Alkhateeb said: "we have all worked long and hard individually and collectively to gain a place of respect at America's table. We have come a long, long way," said the Muslim American leader with apparent pride.

The celebration of the end of the month of Ramadan at the White House, said Sayyid Hussein Nasr, a prominent Islamic scholar at George Washington University, represents "how significant this event is, not only to this group or to Muslims in this country, but to Muslims all over the world." The fact that "Islam is being celebrated at the seat of the executive power of the United States," continued Dr. Nasr, "is the seal of the officialness of Islam as a full-fledged religion in America, and that it has become part and parcel of the religious landscape in this country."

He expressed his belief that the growing "significance" of Islam in America will "surely help improve the relationship between the United States and the whole Islamic world much more than people realize. "American Muslims, he added, "would play sort of an intellectual and cultural bridge, not only between the Muslim world and America, but between the Muslim world and the West as a whole, and even the whole world."

In addition to the Northern American Council For Muslim Women, a number of other Islamic groups were represented at the White House event, including Council on American Islamic Relations; American Muslim Council; Dar Al-Hijra Islamic Center, VA; Adam Center, VA; Islamic Center, Michigan; and Muslim Public Affairs Council, CA.