Ramadan Begins Today; Obama Issues Greetings

Al Arabiya reports that Saudi Arabia's Supreme Court (after confirming seeing the moon crescent) has declared that Ramadan begins today.  UAE, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority have issued similar declarations. In the United States and a number of other countries, Muslims generally rely on astronomical calculations-- rather than actual sighting of the new moon-- for the beginning of Ramadan. (Background.) Yesterday President Obama issued a statement (full text) on behalf of himself and Michelle extending best wishes to Muslims in the United States and around the world. His statement said in part:

As Muslim Americans celebrate the holy month, I am reminded that we are one American family.  I stand firmly with Muslim American communities in rejection of the voices that seek to divide us or limit our religious freedoms or civil rights. 

Yom Hashoah Marked By Obama, Canadian Prime Minister

Yom Hashoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day) on the Jewish calendar began last night at sundown.  President Obama issued a Statement (full text) marking the day.  In addition to paying tribute to those who perished in the Holocaust, and those who survived it, the President also focused on contemporary anti-Semitism, saying:

Today, and every day, we stand in solidarity with the Jewish community both at home and abroad.  We stand with those who are leaving the European cities where they have lived for generations because they no longer feel safe, with the members of institutions that have been attacked because of their Jewish affiliations, and with the college students forced to confront swastikas appearing on their campuses.  And we call upon all people of good will to be vigilant and vocal against every form of bigotry.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also issued a statement (full text) marking Yom Hashoah.

President Declares May As Jewish American Heritage Month

Last week, President Obama issued a Proclamation (full text) declaring May as Jewish American Heritage Month. The Proclamation reads in part:

Jewish Americans, having shared in the struggle for freedom, have been instrumental in ensuring our Nation stays true to the principles enshrined in our founding documents. They have helped bring about enduring progress in every aspect of our society, shaping our country's character and embodying the values we hold dear.

Yesterday, Democratic leader Nancy Peolsi also issued a statement  on Jewish American Heritage Month.

President Sends Greetings For Orthodox Christian Easter

In a White House press release (full text) yesterday, President Obama sent greetings to members of the Orthodox Christian community who are celebrating the Orthodox Easter this week end, saying in part:

Michelle and I extend our best wishes to members of the Orthodox Christian community here in America and around the world as they observe Holy Friday and the Feast of the Resurrection....

We lift up in prayer the members of the Orthodox community who have been persecuted for their faith and subjected to unspeakable acts of violence, and we seek the release of those who have been kidnapped.   We remember those who have been driven from their homelands and who have seen their religious institutions desecrated or destroyed. 

White House Passover Seder Will Be Late

Passover begins this evening.  President Obama has made it a practice to host a Passover Seder in the White House every year, building on a Seder he attended in Pennsylvania during the 2008 primary season when he was first running for President.  That Seder, in a hotel, was organized by Jewish members of his campaign staff. The Forward reports that this year the President's Seder will be late since he is in Saudi Arabia through this weekend attending a regional cooperation summit.  So the White House Seder will be held next week, still during Passover but not on one of the first two nights when Seders are usually held.

UPDATE: Here is the President's Passover message to the Jewish community, noting that this year will be their last Seder in the White House.

Obama Speaks At White House Easter Prayer Breakfast

Yesterday, President Obama (introduced by Vice President Joe Biden) spoke at his annual Easter Prayer Breakfast in the State Dining Room at the White House. (Full text of remarks.) The President said in part:

[I]n light of recent events, this gathering takes on more meaning.  Around the world, we have seen horrific acts of terrorism, most recently Brussels, as well as what happened in Pakistan -- innocent families, mostly women and children, Christians and Muslims.  And so our prayers are with the victims, their families, the survivors of these cowardly attacks. 

... [T]hese attacks can foment fear and division.  They can tempt us to cast out the stranger, strike out against those who don’t look like us, or pray exactly as we do.  And they can lead us to turn our backs on those who are most in need of help and refuge.  That’s the intent of the terrorists, is to weaken our faith, to weaken our best impulses, our better angels. 

... [I]f Easter means anything, it’s that you don’t have to be afraid.  We drown out darkness with light, and we heal hatred with love, and we hold on to hope.  And we think about all that Jesus suffered and sacrificed on our behalf -- scorned, abandoned shunned, nail-scarred hands bearing the injustice of his death and carrying the sins of the world.

AP reported on the President's remarks.

White House Issues Easter Greetings and Plans For Annual Easter Egg Roll

On Friday, President Obama extended Good Friday and Easter greetings, saying:

Michelle and I join our fellow Christians in observing Good Friday and celebrating Easter this weekend. This is a time to remember the sacrifices made for us and hold all who suffer close to our hearts. Yet it is also a time to rejoice, give thanks for the Resurrection, and unite with Christians around the world in proclaiming, "Christ has risen; He has risen indeed." We wish all who celebrate a blessed and joyful Easter.

The White House on Friday also announced (full text) the full program, activities, and talent line-up for the 2016 White House Easter Egg Roll that will be held on the South Lawn of the White House on Monday. Over 35,000 tickets have been issued for the event.

President Speaks At National Prayer Breakfast

Yesterday President Barack Obama spoke at the 64th annual National Prayer Breakfast at the Washington Hilton Hotel. His remarks (full text) which NBC described as focusing on "piety not politics," but with political "undertones in the background," built on a quotation from Second Timothy: "For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind." C-Span has posted video of all the speakers, including House Speaker Paul Ryan.

President Obama Speaks At Baltimore Mosque

Yesterday President Obama made his first visit to a mosque in the United States and gave a wide-ranging 45-minute address (full text) emphasizing both the contributions and concerns of the Muslim community in the United States.  Speaking at the Islamic Society of Baltimore, he focused on the American tradition of religious liberty, dealt directly with the challenges posed to American society by groups such as al Quaeda and ISIL, and called on the American Muslim community "to show that it is possible to be faithful to Islam and to be part of a pluralistic society."  Near the end of his remarks, the President addressed himself explicitly to Muslim youth in the United States:

 In our lives, we all have many identities.  We are sons and daughters, and brothers and sisters.  We’re classmates; Cub Scout troop members.  We’re followers of our faith.  We’re citizens of our country.  And today, there are voices in this world, particularly over the Internet, who are constantly claiming that you have to choose between your identities -- as a Muslim, for example, or an American.  Do not believe them.  If you’re ever wondering whether you fit in here, let me say it as clearly as I can, as President of the United States:  You fit in here -- right here.  (Applause.)  You’re right where you belong.  You’re part of America, too.  (Applause.)  You’re not Muslim or American.  You’re Muslim and American. (Applause.) 

Don’t grow cynical.  Don’t respond to ignorance by embracing a world view that suggests you must choose between your faith and your patriotism.  Don’t believe that you have to choose between your best impulses and somehow embrace a world view that pits us against each other -- or, even worse, glorifies violence.  Understand your power to bring about change.  Stay engaged in your community.  Help move our country forward -- your country forward.  (Applause.) 

Several hours ahead of the President's appearance in Baltimore, White House advisor Rumana Ahmed released an e-mail emphasizing the importance to her of the President's visit to the mosque.

Presidential Proclamation: Religious Freedom Day

The White House yesterday issued a Presidential Proclamation (full text) declaring today as Religious Freedom Day 2016.  It marks the anniversary of the adoption on Jan. 16, 1786 of the Virginia Statute of Religious Freedom.  President Obama's Proclamation included an extensive discussion of his Administration's initiatives to further religious liberty:

Here at home, my Administration is working to preserve religious liberty and enforce civil rights laws that protect religious freedom -- including laws that protect employees from religious discrimination and require reasonable accommodation of religious practices on the job. We will keep upholding the right of religious communities to establish places of worship and protecting the religious rights of those so often forgotten by society, such as incarcerated persons and individuals confined to institutions. We will also continue to protect students from discrimination and harassment that is based on their faith, and we will continue to enforce hate crime laws, including those perpetrated based on a person's actual or perceived religion. This work is crucial, particularly given the recent spike in reports of threats and violence against houses of worship, children, and adults simply because of their religious affiliation. 

As we strive to uphold religious freedom at home, we recognize that this basic element of human dignity does not stop at our shores, and we work to promote religious freedom around the globe. We are working with a broad coalition against those who have subjected religious minorities to unspeakable violence and persecution, and we are mobilizing religious and civic leaders to defend vulnerable religious communities. In addition, we are calling for the elimination of improper restrictions that suppress religious practice, coordinating with governments around the world to promote religious freedom for citizens of every faith, and expanding training for our diplomats on how to monitor and advocate for this freedom.

President Sends Greetings On Orthodox Christmas

Yesterday the White House released a statement (full text) from the President and Mrs. Obama wishing "a blessed Christmas to Orthodox Christians in the United States and around the world."  The statement also "reaffirm[ed] our commitment to protect religious minorities, including Christian minorities, who too often face violence and persecution throughout the world."

Obama Hosts Two White House Hanukkah Receptions

President Obama yesterday hosted two Hanukkah receptions at the White House-- one at 4 pm and the other at 7:30 pm.  Press coverage has focused on the first at which, as reported by the Times of Israel, visiting Israeli President President Reuven Rivlin lit the Hanukkah candles.  Last month the White House asked the public to suggest special menorahs that might be used at this year's receptions, and yesterday it posted the stories of the two that were chosen plus several runners up.  A 15-minute video of remarks by Obama and Rivlin, as well as by Rabbi Susan Talve, at the first reception has been posted by the White House on YouTube.

Focus On the U.S. Muslim Community In the Wake of the San Bernardino Shootings

Last night, just days after the San Bernardino killings, President Obama addressed the nation on issues of terrorism and keeping the country safe. (Full text of Oval Office speech). A portion of his remarks addressed the relationship of all Americans with the American Muslim community:

We cannot turn against one another by letting this fight be defined as a war between America and Islam. That, too, is what groups like ISIL want. ISIL does not speak for Islam. They are thugs and killers, part of a cult of death, and they account for a tiny fraction of more than a billion Muslims around the world — including millions of patriotic Muslim Americans who reject their hateful ideology. Moreover, the vast majority of terrorist victims around the world are Muslim. If we’re to succeed in defeating terrorism we must enlist Muslim communities as some of our strongest allies, rather than push them away through suspicion and hate.

That does not mean denying the fact that an extremist ideology has spread within some Muslim communities. This is a real problem that Muslims must confront, without excuse. Muslim leaders here and around the globe have to continue working with us to decisively and unequivocally reject the hateful ideology that groups like ISIL and al Qaeda promote; to speak out against not just acts of violence, but also those interpretations of Islam that are incompatible with the values of religious tolerance, mutual respect, and human dignity.

But just as it is the responsibility of Muslims around the world to root out misguided ideas that lead to radicalization, it is the responsibility of all Americans — of every faith — to reject discrimination. It is our responsibility to reject religious tests on who we admit into this country. It’s our responsibility to reject proposals that Muslim Americans should somehow be treated differently. Because when we travel down that road, we lose. That kind of divisiveness, that betrayal of our values plays into the hands of groups like ISIL. Muslim Americans are our friends and our neighbors, our co-workers, our sports heroes — and, yes, they are our men and women in uniform who are willing to die in defense of our country. We have to remember that.

The Muslim community is rethinking its responses to violence committed by Islamic radicals.  An AP article yesterday reports:

[S]ome in the Muslim community say a new game plan is needed. A younger generation is especially impatient with the condemnations of Islamic extremism from Muslim groups after every attack. They argue that the statements merely reinforce false notions that Muslims are collectively responsible for the violence

And a group of American Muslims last week launched the Muslim Reform Movement with a Declaration (full text) that rejects interpretations of Islam that call for violence, social injustice or politicized Islam.

Meanwhile, a Reuters poll released yesterday finds that 51% of Americans view Muslims living in the United States the same as any other community, while 14.6% are generally fearful of Muslims living in the U.S. However 34.7% say they are fearful of "a few groups and individuals" in the Muslim community.  Some 69% of Republicans surveyed and 48% of Democrats favor closing mosques suspected of having extremist ties.

President Issues Proclamation for Thanksgiving 2015

Last week President Obama issued a Presidential Proclamation-- Thanksgiving Day 2015. It reads in part:

In the same spirit of togetherness and thanksgiving that inspired the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag, we pay tribute to people of every background and belief who contribute in their own unique ways to our country's story.  Each of us brings our own traditions, cultures, and recipes to this quintessential American holiday -- whether around dinner tables, in soup kitchens, or at home cheering on our favorite sports teams -- but we are all united in appreciation of the bounty of our Nation.  

Obama Criticizes Growing Anti-Muslim Sentiment In United States

At his White House press conference yesterday (full text) with President Hollande of France, President Obama again criticized the anti-Muslim sentiment in the United States that has surfaced in the wake of ISIL's attacks in Paris, saying:

... [A]nother part of defeating terrorists like ISIL, is upholding the rights and freedoms that define our two great republics.  That includes freedom of religion.  That includes equality before the law.  There have been times in our history, in moments of fear, when we have failed to uphold our highest ideals, and it has been to our lasting regret.  We must uphold our ideals now.  Each of us, all of us, must show that America is strengthened by people of every faith and every background.

Obama Reflects On Christianity

The New York Review of Books (Nov. 5 issue) published a conversation between President Obama and prize-winning author Marilynne Robinson which included this exchange on religion:

The President: ... [O]ne of the points that you’ve made in one of your most recent essays is that there was a time in which at least reformed Christianity in Europe was very much “the other.” And part of our system of government was based on us rejecting an exclusive, inclusive—or an exclusive and tightly controlled sense of who is part of the community and who is not, in favor of a more expansive one.

Tell me a little bit about how your interest in Christianity converges with your concerns about democracy.

Robinson: Well, I believe that people are images of God. There’s no alternative that is theologically respectable to treating people in terms of that understanding.... 

The President: But you’ve struggled with the fact that here in the United States, sometimes Christian interpretation seems to posit an “us versus them,” and those are sometimes the loudest voices. But sometimes I think you also get frustrated with kind of the wishy-washy, more liberal versions where anything goes.

Robinson: Yes.

The President: How do you reconcile the idea of faith being really important to you and you caring a lot about taking faith seriously with the fact that, at least in our democracy and our civic discourse, it seems as if folks who take religion the most seriously sometimes are also those who are suspicious of those not like them?

White House Announces New Appointments To Faith-Based Advisory Council

In a press release yesterday, the White House announced the names of 18 individuals whom President Obama will appoint to his third Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. Additional appointments will be announced at a later date.  According to the press release:

The charge for this Council focuses on steps the government should take to reduce poverty and inequality and create opportunity for all, including changes in policies, programs, and practices that affect the delivery of services by faith-based and community organizations and the needs of low-income and other underserved persons.

Obama Holds Conference Call With U.S. Rabbis In Advance of Rosh Hashanah

A White House press release reports that yesterday President Obama held a conference call with over 500 U.S. rabbis from the four major Jewish religious denominations to mark Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, which begins at sundown on Sunday. According to the readout of the President's call:

In addition to wishing the Rabbis and their congregations a happy, healthy new year, the President discussed and answered participants' questions on a range of topics, including the nuclear deal among the P5+1, the EU, and Iran that will verifiably prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. 

Obama Takes Kenya To Task Over Gay Rights; Kenyan President Responds

At a news conference (full text) yesterday on his visit to Kenya, President Obama criticized Kenya for its treatment of gays and lesbians. Kenyan President Kenyatta responded:

PRESIDENT OBAMA: ... Similarly, with respect to the rights of gays and lesbians, I’ve been consistent all across Africa on this.  I believe in the principle of treating people equally under the law, and that they are deserving of equal protection under the law and that the state should not discriminate against people based on their sexual orientation.  And I say that, recognizing that there may be people who have different religious or cultural beliefs.  But the issue is how does the state operate relative to people.  

If you look at the history of countries around the world, when you start treating people differently -- not because of any harm they’re doing anybody, but because they’re different -- that’s the path whereby freedoms begin to erode and bad things happen.  And when a government gets in the habit of treating people differently, those habits can spread.  

And as an African-American in the United States, I am painfully aware of the history of what happens when people are treated differently, under the law, and there were all sorts of rationalizations that were provided by the power structure for decades in the United States for segregation and Jim Crow and slavery, and they were wrong.  

So I’m unequivocal on this.  If somebody is a law-abiding citizen who is going about their business, and working in a job, an obeying the traffic signs -- (laughter) -- and doing all the other things that good citizens are supposed to do, and not harming anybody -- the idea that they are going to be treated differently or abused because of who they love is wrong.

And the state does not need to weigh in on religious doctrine.  The state just has to say we’re going to treat everybody equally under the law.  And then everybody else can have their own opinions....

PRESIDENT KENYATTA: ... With regard to the second question, just like President Obama, I think we also need to be able to speak frankly about some of these things.  And the fact of the matter is that Kenya and the United States, we share so many values -- our common love for democracy, entrepreneurship, value for families.  These are things that we share.  But there are some things that we must admit we don’t share -- our culture, our societies don’t accept.  It is very difficult for us to be able to impose on people that which they themselves do not accept.  

This is why I repeatedly say that, for Kenyans today, the issue of gay rights is really a non-issue.  We want to focus on other areas that are day-to-day living for our people:  The health issues that we have discussed with President Obama.  These are critical.  Issues of ensuring inclusivity of women, a huge section of society that is normally left out of the mainstream of economic development.  What we can do in terms of infrastructure; what we can do in terms of education; in terms of our roads; in terms of giving our people power, encouraging entrepreneurship.  These are the key focuses.  

Maybe once, like you have overcome some of these challenges, we can begin to look at new ones.  But as of now, the fact remains that this issue is not really an issue that is on the foremost mind of Kenyans, and that is the fact.

Homosexual acts between men are punishable by 14 years (and in some cases 21 years) in prison in Kenya. (Background.)

President Sends Eid-ul-Fitr Greetings

Yesterday President Obama issued a statement (full text) extending warmest wishes to Muslims in the United States and around the world celebrating Eid-ul-Fitr-- the end of Ramadan. He said in part:

As Muslim Americans celebrate Eid across America, the holiday is a reminder to every American of the importance of respecting those of all faiths and beliefs. This past year New York City Public Schools announced adding Eid to their official school calendars alongside Christmas, Hanukkah and other holidays – an acknowledgement of the great diversity and inclusiveness that adds to the richness of our nation....

Michelle and I hope today brings joy to all of your homes, both here in the U.S. and around the world. From my family to yours, Eid Mubarak! 

The Eid is celebrated today in the United States.