Tillerson breaks tradition of holding Ramadan event at State Dept.
I have no strong feelings on this either way but I do have a question. Should the US government be holding events for any religion whatsoever? I thought government departments were supposed to be secular organizations. Why are they organizing religious stuff?
tbh, I’d imagine the organisation will be relieved.
Same reason we have a national Christmas tree and our money says “In God We Trust”
Mohammad wept.
Diplomacy. The purpose was diplomacy.
Why are people surprised?
Well, it’s not the first time. There was at least one occasion under President Obama that it didn’t happen. But, of course, that’s not noted in the OP, because Obama. :rolleyes:
The government is not to establish a religion, make it a condition of public office, or show favoritism, but it is certainly allowed to acknowledge religion and protect its free expression.
My understanding is that such events are an acknowledgement/recognition of a religious event, not a religious event in and of itself.
amusing the knee jerking of the rolleyes.
Aldiboronti is no american and no person of the left.
On a list of things to weep about one would think the ISIS call for the global slaughter of people in celebration of Ramadan ranks significantly higher than lunch with Trump.
And you’re not linking to it. Any reason why?
2015 was Obama’s 7th year in office.
7 years, 7 dinners.
Trump just visited Saudi Arabia. He’s got his “pretend to treat Muslims with dignity” quota met for the rest of his life.
One may decide to counter such people, yet there is no necessity to listen to their fantasies.
Geez, these people are tedious goodie-goodies.
Mohammed whooshed.
So what happened in 2016?
The article was published in 2015. You’d know that if you had actually read it.
Washington Post.
So, this ’celebration’ is just the Iftar (Ftour)? It’s is the Breakfast. It is a meal not a religious ceremony.
Perhaps the phobics can get upset about something less ridiculous than a simple little fast breaking breakfast.
In 2016 I can find multiple reports about Secretary of State John Kerry attending an iftar reception at the All Dulles Area Muslim Society center in Sterling, Virginia. In addition to that I found a State Department statement that Secretary Kerry was planning to host a reception in honor of Eid-al-Fitr on July 12, 2016 at the State Department.
State Department archives easily show reports of hosting Ramadan events in:
2009
That seems to show the State Department hosting some sort of Ramadan event each year of the Obama administration.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-religion-ramadan-usa-tillerson-exclsu-idUSKBN18M2IE
I was referring to the fact that the Secretary of State himself would not be hosting one. The story focused on that; I did not notice that the OP was more concerned with the State Dept. as a whole.