Obama Not The First To Host Ramadan Dinner
Ramadan During The Bush Administration
In 2001, President George W. Bush followed suit. Shortly after 9/11, he hosted the first White House Iftar dinner — the daily breaking of fast at sundown. It was ostensibly one of the most tense periods between Muslims and non-Muslims. President Bush told his guests that the Qur’an “has guided billions of believers across the centuries, and those believers built a culture of learning and literature and science.”
That same year, Muslims leaders around the world called on the President to suspend bombing in Afghanistan during Ramadan. To these requests, he said:
"Tonight that campaign continues in Afghanistan so that the people of Afghanistan will soon know peace. The terrorists have no home in any faith. Evil has no holy days."
He emphasized that the war against the Taliban was in no way a war against Islam.
President Bush hosted an Iftar every year of his two terms. During Ramadan of 2005, he announced he had added the first copy of the Koran to the White House library, saying:
"I have asked young Americans to study the language and customs of the broader Middle East."