Vice President Pence at White House

White House, Washington, DC, September 25, 2019 — Vice President, Mr. Mike Pence, walked into the meeting held at White House titled, “Faith-Based community safety and Security Symposium.” 

 


At the end of his short talk, he shook hands with a few, and as he was ready to leave, I walked up to him. The security guard held me. I raised the copy of the American Muslim Agenda in the air and signaled that I wanted to present the book to him. The Vice President walked over, and I said, “Sir, this book is about Understanding American Muslims and their contributions in making America Great Again. It is about building a cohesive America, and we hope to have a Muslim woman president in the year 2036. ” 

 

He listened and promised to read the book, the’ American Muslim Agenda’ and ‘get back with me.’ I hope he makes it as productive as he did with my previous encounter. 

 

 It was my 2nd interaction with the Vice president, and the first one was at the CPAC meeting on February 23, 2017. He passed on my letter to Trump, and Trumps’ first sentence at his opening address at the state of the union after acknowledging the dignitaries came from that letter. It’s here- https://centerforpluralism.com/cfp-delivers-the-letter-to-president-trump/ 

  

We presented a copy of the book American Muslim Agenda to Kevin Smith, one of the directors at Home Land Security. He did the same as Attorney General Barr who stepped out of the stage to have a conversation with me and to receive a copy of the Book American Muslim Agenda. 

 

Muslim leadership was present, and it was good to see them all. Salaam Maryati-MPAC, Hurun Nisa-Adams Center, Imam Faizul Khan-Masjid ISWA, Imam Talib Shareef of Masjid Muhammad, Akhtar Hossain-MACCP, Osama of USCMO, and Dr. Ashraf Sufi-ISNA. I am sure there were others. 

 

 There were several discussions, and one of them was a panel discussing the security measures taken by each place of worship. The participants were Imam Talib Shareef, President, and Imam of the Nation’s Mosque, Brad Orsini of the Jewish Federation of Pittsburg, Pastor Frankie Jones from a Baptist Church in Virginia, Kiran Gill, the executive director of Sikh American Legal Defense Fund.  

 

Imam Talib Shariff shared his experience with the gun-toting white supremacists four years ago. Of course, they did not make it then as 400 non-Muslim neighbors had formed a human chain to defend the Mosque. It is necessary to build relationships with the communities we live in. I had another version of the same experience dealing with 27 gun-toting White Supremacists. 

 

In October 2015, a group that did not like Muslims were planning to hold anti-Muslim demonstrations across 19 mosques in the United States. At a meeting of 30 plus Muslim leaders, chaired by Congressman Keith Ellison at CAIR’s national headquarters, they were about to decide to close the Mosques and not deal with the gun toters. Thanks to Congressman Keith Ellison for letting me speak, which was seconded by Dalia Mogahed and the whole narrative changed. I presented it as an opportunity to welcome the strangers with full hospitality by serving them water, hot dogs, and waving American Flags. When they come expecting Muslims to be hostile, they will be surprised to see Muslims hospitable people. It will speed up the process of acceptance of Muslims as a part of the American family of faiths. A press release was sent, and thank God, they decided, their teasing will not work and canceled the demonstrations across the nation. The full story is on this website.

 

The program was managed very well and ran by the minute. However, due to the walk-in by the VP, it was off by 20 minutes, and they were apologetic about it. You have got to admire the American system, where everyone is equal. Indeed, equality is one of the 12 Islamic values highlighted in the book American Muslim Agenda, fully backed up verses from the Quran. 

 

Thanks to Dr. Basheer Ahmed, Dr. Nauman Anwar, and Farooq Khan and a few others who understood the necessity of communicating with the elected officials for them to see the Muslim point of view.  

 

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 They have funded the books to present to the Senators, Congressmen, State Department, White House and dept of Justice and homeland security. Over 100 books are in their hands, and ten more books reserved for Texas Senators and a few Congressmen. They are all back from six weeks’ vacation, and I will be reaching them. We will place more books in the hand of the presidential candidates. Need funding for another 100 books, you can buy and ship them to me, and I will deliver them.

Dr. Mike Ghouse is a thinker, author, speaker, newsmaker and an interfaith wedding officiant. His new book American Muslim Agenda is available on Amazon. He is committed to building cohesive societies and offers pluralistic solutions on issues of the day. He is the Executive Director at the Center for Pluralism in Washington, DC. His information is at linked-in.