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Last year’s list.

Ramadan Dinner at the White House: The Guest List
Updated 7:38 p.m.
By Michael A. Fletcher
President Obama will host a White House dinner Tuesday night celebrating Ramadan, the Muslim holy month during which the faithful fast from dawn to sunset each day.

Obama will be joined at the dinner by three Cabinet members, five members of Congress, nearly two dozen foreign diplomats, and 33 community leaders. Among the invited diplomats are the Israeli ambassador and the chief of mission for the Palestinian Liberation Organization, as well as the Indian and Pakistani ambassadors to the United States.

Asked about the unusual step of inviting the Israeli ambassador to the dinner, the White House described it as a small part of the event. “Tonight was an opportunity to continue the tradition of hosting iftars at the White House, while celebrating Muslim Americans, and tonight’s dinner is made up of a diverse group of individuals from business leaders to members of the US military,” White House spokesman Thomas Vietor said. “Additionally, we thought it was an opportunity to reach out to ambassadors of nations with sizable Muslim populations, including the ambassadors of France, the [United Kingdom], India, and Israel.”

Obama intends to highlight one story in particular: that of Bilqis Abdul-Qaadir, a young woman who broke high school basketball records in Massachusetts before heading to the University of Memphis — while wearing a traditional hijab.

Obama, who held an intimate Passover Seder at the White House in April, will host the dinner beginning at 8 p.m. tonight. Ramadan, which started on Aug. 22, will end on Sept. 20.

On Aug. 21, the president released a Ramadan video message to Muslims around the world.

The guest list released by the White House follows:

CABINET
Secretary Robert Gates, Department of Defense
Attorney General Eric Holder, Department of Justice
Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, Health and Human Services

DEPUTY CABINET SECRETARIES
Deputy Secretary Dennis Hightower, Department of Commerce
Deputy Secretary Adam Miller, Department of Education

MEMBERS OF CONGRESS
Congressman Andre Carson (Indiana 7th)
Congressman John Conyers (Michigan 14th)
Congressman Keith Ellison (Minnesota 5th)
Congressman Rush Holt (New Jersey 12th)
Senator Richard Lugar (R-IN)

DIPLOMATIC CORPS
Ambassador Prince Zeid Ra’ad Zeid Al Hussein, Jordan
Ambassador Adel A.M. Al-Jubeir, Saudi Arabia
Ambassador Husain Haqqani, Pakistan
Ambassador Erlan A. Idrissov, Kazakhstan
Ambassador His Excellency Said Tayeb Jawad, Afghanistan
Ambassador Aziz Mekouar, Morocco
Ambassador Peter N.R.O. Ogego, Kenya
Ambassador Roble Olhaye, D’jibouti
Ambassador Michael Oren, Israel
Ambassador Sudjadnan Parnohadiningrat, Indonesia
Ambassador Klaus Scharioth, Germany
Ambassador Meera Shankar, India
Ambassador Nabi Sensoy, Turkey
Ambassador Sir Nigel Elton Sheinwald, United Kingdom
Ambassador Sameh Hassan Shoukry, Egypt
Ambassador Samir Shakir Mahmood Sumaida’ie, Iraq
Ambassador Pierre Nicolas Vimont, France
Chargé d’Affaires Sheikh Mohammed Belal, Bangladesh
Chargé d’Affaires Ilango Karuppanan, Malaysia
Chargé d’Affaires Mohamed O Maiga,
Chargé d’Affaires Angela Oi Foong Shim, Brunei
Chargé d’Affaires Baba Gana Wakil, Nigeria
Mr. Maen Areikat, Chief of Mission, PLO

COMMUNITY MEMBERS
Ms. Bilquis Abdul-Qaadir, University of Memphis
Professor Azizah Al-Hibri, University of Richmond School of Law
Ms. Reema Ali, Karamah: Muslim Women Lawyers for Human Rights
Mr. Hasan Chandoo, Oppenheimer & Co.
Rabbi Nathan Diament, Director, Institute for Public Affairs, Orthodox Union*
Imam Plemon El-Amin, Atlanta Masjid al-Islam
Mr. Wahid Hamid, PepsiCo
Ms. Dina Hammad
Mr. Lutfi Hassan
Ms. Nashala Hearn
Ms. Rosalind Hearn
Imam Yahya Hendi, Chaplain, Georgetown University
Pastor Joel Hunter, Northland Church*
Mr. Nooman Husain
Mr. Imad Hussain
Mr. Sanford Ibrahim, CEO, Radian Group
Mr. Jameel Jaffer, Staff Attorney, ACLU
Mrs. Elsheba Khan
Dr. Mansur Khan, UMMA Community Clinic
Ms. Farhana Khera, Muslim Advocates
Lt. Commander Abuhena Saifulislam, U.S. Marine Corps
Mr. Kareem Salama
Imam Yusuf Saleem, Masjid Muhammad
Dr. Ingrid Mattson, President, Islamic Society of North America
Mr. Farooq Mitha
Ms. Dalia Mogahed, Director, Gallup Center for Muslim Studies*
Ms. Hutham Olayan, Olayan America Corp.
Mr. Eboo Patel, Interfaith Youth Corps*
Imam Yusuf Saleem, Masjid Muhammad
Rabbi David Saperstein, Religious Action Center for Reform Judaism*
Ms. Mina Trudeau, Executive Director, El Fatiha Foundation
Mr. J. Saleh Williams, Congressional Muslim Staffers Association
Mr. Mohamed Zakariya, Zakariya Calligraphy

*denotes members of the President’s Council on Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships

3 off this year's list per Frank Gaffney: *Ingrid Mattson* heads the largest Muslim Brotherhood front in the country, the Islamic Society of North America. ISNA was an unindicted co-conspirator in the biggest terrorism financing trial in the nation’s history and was identified as a Brotherhood “associated or friendly” group in documents introduced as evidence /uncontested /in that Holy Land Foundation prosecution. Ms. Mattson now presides over the selection, training and certification of Muslim chaplains for the U.S. military and prison system – interestingly, a job formerly in the hands of Muslim Brother Abdurahman Alamoudi, the founder and first head of the American Muslim Council, who is currently serving a 23-year sentence on terrorism charges. *Salam Al-Marayati* is president of the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC). In 1999, then-House Democratic Leader Richard Gephardt withdrew his nomination of Al-Marayati to a leadership position on the National Commission on Terrorism when it became public that Al-Marayati claimed that the terrorist group, Hezbollah, was a legitimate organization and has the right to attack the Israeli Army. *Dalia Mogahed* runs the insidious Gallup Center for Muslim Studies and advises President Obama on Muslim affairs as a member of the President’s Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. In an October 2009 interview with the London Telegraph , she made the following astounding assertions: “I think the reason so many women support shariah is because they have a very different understanding of shariah than the common perception in Western media.” “The majority of women around the world associate gender justice, or justice for women, with shariah compliance.” /“/The portrayal of shariah has been oversimplified in many cases.”