The White House has been warned by Muslim leaders that invites to President Biden’s Ramadan reception may be declined over his support of 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 Eid al-Fitr, according to Politico, and potentially limiting invites to Biden administration officials and ambassadors from Muslim-majority nations.
“I’m not sure how they’re going to be able to do this this year. A lot of people are just not going to go,” a Muslim leader, who has attended past Biden White House Ramadan receptions, told the outlet.
In past years, Biden has hosted hundreds of Muslim community leaders in the spacious White House East Room for the annual event commemorating the end of the holiest month on the Islamic calendar.
The event was held virtually in 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In 2017, former President Donald Trump broke with 20 years of White House tradition by opting not to host a Ramadan event.
Trump, 77, would go on to host Ramadan receptions in 2018 and 2019 that were mostly attended by foreign diplomats, according to Politico.
Muslim Public Affairs Council President Salam al-Marayati told the outlet that there is “no appetite” in the Muslim community to celebrate Ramadan with Biden.
Biden’s support among Arab Americans has tanked in the aftermath of his backing of Israel’s 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 American support for Biden at 59%.
About a dozen Muslim and Arab American Michigan elected officials, officeholders and community leaders rebuffed meeting with Biden campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez in January after the planned summit elicited “outrage” in the community, with some invited attendees against Israeli military action in Gaza expressing disapproval that campaign officials were dispatched to the state rather than policymakers.
The following month, the White House dispatched a delegation of top Biden administration officials to Michigan, one of whom, Deputy National Security Adviser Jon Finer, acknowledged “missteps” in the administration’s support of Israel’s war against Hamas terrorists.
More than 100,000 Michiganders — a state with a sizable Muslim and Arab American voting bloc — voted “uncommitted” in the state’s Democratic presidential primary last month, in protest of the president.
