I can't wait to see the religious right bigots blow a gasket over this. Mark my words...
Secretary of state hosts Muslims at State Department iftar dinner
In recent months, Muslims around the world have demonstrated the qualities of generosity and benevolence that are at the heart of religious traditions surrounding the holy month of Ramadan, according to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
“[I]n the wake of Hurricane Katrina, Muslim nations extended some of the most generous offers of support that we received,” Rice told guests at the State Department’s seventh annual Ramadan Iftar dinner October 25. “And after the recent earthquake in South Asia, the entire world watched as thousands of Muslims, deep in the observance of Ramadan, led the relief effort without breaking their fast.”
The secretary said that Muslims in all nations deserve the basic human rights to which all people aspire: “the right to live without oppression, the right to worship without persecution, and the right to think and speak and assemble without wrongful retribution.”
The United States supports “people of every culture and race and religion who wish to make their own decisions and choose their own governments and speak their own minds,” she added.
Rice said that compassion, cooperation and charity, as reflected in Islam and other faiths, are fundamental elements of every society, but especially democracies, which depend on the respectful exchange of ideas.
