Obama to host Ramadan meal
- 08/13/10 08:36 AM ET
President Obama will host an iftar -- the special evening meal observed during Ramadan -- on Friday night in the White House dining room.
Obama participated in a similar gathering last year.
Celebrations like iftar dinners "remind us of the principles that we hold in common, and Islam's role in advancing justice, progress, tolerance and the dignity of all human beings," Obama wrote in a statement Wednesday.
"Ramadan is a celebration of a faith known for great diversity and racial equality ... a reminder that Islam has always been part of America and that American Muslims have made extraordinary contributions to our country."
The dinner comes amid a growing controversy over the proposed construction of an Islamic cultural center in downtown Manhattan, near the site of the World Trade Center. A CNN poll released Wednesday found that 68 percent of the public opposes the project.
Meanwhile, the White House -- which has made great efforts to reach out to the Muslim community -- has been silent on the issue.
"This is rightly a matter for New York City and the local community to decide," White House press secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters on Aug. 3.
Ramadan began on Wednesday and will end around Sept. 10.
As opposed to all this bokononism is based on the concept of foma, which are defined as harmless untruths. The primary tenet of Bokononism is to "Live by the foma that make you brave and kind and healthy and happy." Many of the sacred texts of Bokononism were written in the form of calypsos. The foundation of Bokononism is that all religion, including Bokononism and all its texts, is formed entirely of lies; however, if you believe and adhere to these lies, you will at least have peace of mind, and perhaps live a good life. Bokonon, is the founder of the religion. He was born Lionel Boyd Johnson and attended the London School of Economics and Political Science, only for his education to be cut short by World War I. "Bokonon" was the way the natives of San Lorenzo, the Caribbean island-nation where the shipwrecked Johnson started his religion, pronounced his family name in their unique dialect of English. Bokonon established Bokononism with Earl McCabe, his partner in ruling the island, when all the duo's efforts to raise the standard of living on the island failed, as a means to help the poor islanders escape their miserable reality by practicing a simple religion. Arranging with McCabe that Bokononism be outlawed and eternally persecuted by the government, he went living into the jungle, hiding, thus trying to lure the population into Bokononism as a kind of forbidden fruit.
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