White House Calls Off Joe Biden's Iftar As Invitees Decline Invitations

The White House cancelled Iftar meal after several Muslim Americans rejected the invitation. The invitation was declined as a protest against US President Joe Biden’s stance on Israel-Gaza war. Reportedly, the Muslim community members warned leaders against attending the White House Ramadan meal.

The deputy director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), Edward Ahmed Mitchell, also said that the event was cancelled as many people refused to attend, including the invitees who initially agreed to attend.

Talking Al Jazeera, Mitchelle said, “the American Muslim community said very early on that it would be completely unacceptable for us to break bread with the very same White House that is enabling the Israeli government to starve and slaughter the Palestinian people in Gaza”.

The new development shows Biden’s futile struggle to stem the growing anger amongst the US Arab and Muslim communities, over Washington’s unconditional support for Israel. Critics warn that the outrage could mean peril to the President at the poll during the November election.

Karien Jean-Pierre, a White House spokeswoman said that the community leaders demanded a meeting instead of the meal. Talking to reporters, she said “they wanted to make sure that there was an opportunity to discuss the issues at hand”.

However, several Muslim activists opined that the meeting will be another futile “photo-op’. The director of development at American Muslims for Palestine, Mohammed Habehh said, “no matter how many meetings we have, no matter how many people have gone in, no matter how many conversations are being held, the White House has refused to change”, as quoted by Al Jazeera.

He told Al Jazeera that the discussions held by White House are just a “pathetic attempts to make themselves look good at a time when their true colours have been seen”.

Another key issue during such talks are said to be the list of invitees. Only a few handpicked by the administration has been invited to such meetings. A Muslim advocate listed out the names of credible Palestinian American leaders to the administration to invite for a meeting at White House only for it to be rejected, said Al Jazeera.