Shura Council Congratulates Barak Obama
Dr Muzammil Siddiqi, Chairman, Islamic Shura Council, has congratulated Senator Barak Obama on his election victory. In a letter addressed to the President-elect,
Dr Siddiqi said:
Assalamu Alaykum - Peace be onto you:
It is with joy and admiration I congratulate you for your election as the 44th President of the United States of America. I pray to God Almighty that He blesses you with His gift of wisdom and enable you to realize the hope and trust that our nation has placed in you. May your family be also blessed with health and happiness in watching you do much good for our country.
May God also grant you with the cherished memories of your grandmother in whom you take so much pride for her sacrifices to help you become the person you are and now the President of the United States of America. May you be blessed with patience for your irrevocable loss.
While sincerely congratulating you and wishing you our best, I like to join you in our collective struggle for our common concerns.
We sadly watch the infectious culture of greed and over-consumption leading to an economic meltdown, impacting all people and creating even wider economic disparities between few rich, some poor and many in the middle. While it is important to focus on a large middle class, we cannot afford to forget the poor who continue to struggle at a subsistence level. The remedy for a culture of debt is not more long-term debt but rather prudence on spending.
While we deeply respect your wisdom in dissenting at the time to invade Iraq, we now call upon you to stop the killings of innocent men, women and children in Iraq and Afghanistan. Many innocent people have been killed since you became President-Elect in these past few days. We join you in fostering a culture of life over death in an ever-increasing violent world.
We also hope and pray that your Presidency would restore the "rule of law" in our country. Guantanamo Bay and the likes of it must be closed. Innocent must be freed. Rule of law must be restored, equally for all people. We believe, Justice transcends faiths, traditions, cultures and geographies and as proud Americans we must place "justice" on the right, left and center of our discourse and practice.
We celebrate with you an unprecedented mobilization of democracy. We pray that your Presidency would also make it a priority to create equal opportunities for all people in the area of education and health care. Upholding the American value of inclusiveness, we believe, is equally important and we hope to see that translated in your Government.
Lastly, Mr. President-Elect, we assure you of our cooperation and collaboration and share your concern for common good, which is an inherent value in our faith.
Prayerfully.
Dr. Muzammil Siddiqi
Chairman
The Islamic Shura Council is an umbrella organization of Mosques and Muslim organizations serving more than five hundred thousand Muslims of Southern California.
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