Excerpt:
As Donald Trump hosts his inaugural Iftar dinner as president on Wednesday to mark the holy month of Ramadan, Muslims in the nation’s capital will hold a counter event just steps away from the White House.
The lack of enthusiasm among American Muslims over Trump’s unexpected decision to hold a White House Iftar underscores the community’s contentious relationship with the US president.
Leading Muslim groups in Washington who attended the event under previous administrations said Trump’s continued targeting of Islam and its followers made engagement with his administration a futile, if not impossible task, given the president’s history of incendiary comments about Muslims.
“I wouldn’t anticipate that any credible mainstream American Muslim organizations or leaders would be invited or agree to attend, given the administration’s Islamophobic and white supremacist positions and policies,” said Ibrahim Hooper, the spokesman for the Council on American Islamic Relations.