Sixth Annual State Department Iftar Dinner

But you saw American democracy in action in the best possible way. You saw the clash of ideas. You saw the clash of personalities. You saw attacks and counterattacks. You saw defensive moves and offensive moves. It almost sounds like a military battle. (Laughter.) And in some sense, that's what it was.

What was its purpose? Its purpose was to persuade the people in one direction or another, to show the American people what the two candidates stood for. And this is a process that we have been through 55 times since we started this, without interruption, since 1788.

And all of this noise that you hear, the press arguing and the commentators going on and criticizing everything that takes place on all of the television channels and in the print, and when you watch this noise, it might be troublesome, make you wonder what this is all about.

But the noise has a very simple name. The noise is called democracy. A democratic system where there is supposed to be noise, where there is supposed to be the clash of ideas and personalities, where the two candidates are doing it for one single purpose, not just to gain an office, but to find out what the American people want; to draw from them their hopes and dreams; to gain from the American people inspiration as to how they wish to be led.

And as we saw this unfold on Tuesday and then waited through the night for the results that came on Wednesday morning, there was a lot of discussion, a lot of debate. But then on Wednesday morning, Senator Kerry made his announcement of his concession, in a very dignified, gracious way, speaking about the nation and speaking about coming together again as a nation. And then you heard President Bush yesterday afternoon urging everyone, welcoming Senator Kerry's remarks and welcoming everyone to join the cause of coming together again.

We air our differences openly. Everyone states their case as best they can, both the presidential candidates and all the candidates for legislative office. Our great Executive and Legislative Branches get back to work, the Supreme Court watches it all, and we have an aggressive media that keeps us all in check.

And the reason I love talking about this and watching this unfold is because it reinforces my belief in the democratic system. And these rooms you are in are called the Diplomatic Rooms of the Department of State. This particular room is named after Ben Franklin, the next room over Thomas Jefferson, and then there's another one for John Adams and there's one for Madison and Monroe, all of our founding fathers.

And when I see our system handle an election every couple of years, and I see the noise and confusion, and then I see the results as the American people come back together again, I sometimes wander up to this room and look around and think those gentleman are still somewhere up there looking down with admiration and kind of laughing: That's the way we intended it; it's still working after all these years.

I am so pleased that all of you were here during this period, where you can witness it and perhaps help explain it to those of your fellow citizens when you go back home.

We have a wonderful group here this evening. It's a terrific group, a very diverse group. We have Muslims from Morocco to Indonesia and everywhere in between; we have high-schoolers, we have elders; Fulbright scholars and businessmen, doctors, lawyers and even a few diplomats.

I always make a point -- it started last year -- to have young people at my table because it's fun to hear what they see while they are here in America and it's interesting to see what their observations are about their experiences here in America. And I certainly had that reinforced again this evening as we had a terrific conversation at our table.

I thank all of you for sharing part of your Ramadan with us.

Over the years I've had occasion to learn from my Muslim friends what Ramadan is all about.

I’ve learned that Ramadan is a month set aside for reflection and renewal, deepened by the disciplines of fasting, prayer, and of giving zakat.

Ramadan is when Muslims rededicate themselves to cooperation, to compassion, and to community.

Of course, it is also a social season of open arms, in which no neighbor is turned away.

The tradition of Muslim hospitality has been accumulating for more than thirteen hundred years. I want to express my thanks to the Iman for the beautiful expression of that spirit that he gave to us earlier in the evening.

In modern times, American diplomats and businessmen and women working in countries with Muslim communities have often been guests at dozens of Iftar dinners during their careers.

That’s one of the many ways Muslims have made Americans feel so welcome in their countries, and we appreciate that spirit of Ramadan very much.

Just as Americans have been made to feel at home in Muslim lands, Muslims have come to feel at home, and to be truly at home, here in America.

As the Iftar welcomes all in a spirit of brotherhood, so America has been open to all, welcoming to all – as we can see in the diverse and thriving Muslim community in America today.

In fact, the conversation we were having before I stood up to speak was about people coming to America. It was about immigration, using my own family's life experience as to the nature of this open and welcoming country that we have.

And despite our heightened concerns about the security of our nation and the security of the world, America remains an open and welcoming place: a place to visit, to work, to study in, to be healed in, to live in.

We want to have that light so shined before the world that we are that kind of a nation. We want you to come and see Times Square and our musicals. We want you to come and go to Disney World. We want you to come to our universities. It's what makes us who we are, to be that open and welcoming place.

I know better than anyone in this room that as a result of 9/11 and some of the things we have had to do to make sure that while we remain open we also are secure, we have caused inconvenience for many people who want to travel to the United States but have found it difficult. But I want to assure all of you here this evening and all who may watch this or hear these words that we're doing everything we can to make sure that we strike the right balance between our security and our openness. And you will see things improve, as they have in the last year or so, improve even more in the years ahead as we modify our visa policies and change the approach that we take to this so that we can be secure and fully open.

President Bush has been very clear that we will remain an open and a welcoming land.

And he’s been equally clear that America will be with those in need around the world, regardless of race or religion.

We have a record. There are facts, and the facts I'm going to relate to you are facts that I know well because events I'm going to touch on I have been personally involved in over the years.

American soldiers, along with the soldiers of both Muslim and non-Muslim allies, put themselves in harm’s way to liberate Kuwait.

We led the effort to feed the Somali people.

We acted to stop the slaughter of Muslims in Bosnia and Kosovo.

President Bush is the first President to go before the United Nations to state his support for an independent state of Palestine living in peace and security alongside the state of Israel. And he repeated that pledge at his news conference again this morning.

We have we labored and sacrificed to free more than 50 million Muslims from the tyrannies of the Taliban, the tyrannies of Saddam Hussein, in Afghanistan and in Iraq.

The United States has taken the lead to put an end to the crisis in Darfur that has been so tragic for the Muslim peoples of that region. And we will continue to lead until that tragic situation is put right.

Many unkind, and untrue, things are said about the United States in the Muslim world by some people. But I think the facts speak for themselves.

The truth is that America wishes all people well.

America is blessed to be a land that is touched by every other land, and in turn we touch every other land.

We have a strong desire now to reach out and to engage the Muslim world, especially to encourage trends toward freedom and democracy, trends that we see arising in the Muslim world and especially the part of the world we refer to as the broader Middle East and North Africa.

I don’t have to explain to this Iftar gathering the history or the reasons for this desire for reform. But I do want to emphasize that our engagement is shaped by certain principles.

And the most important of these principles is that the desire for reform and modernization has to be home-grown, and its achievements home-owned.

Reform and modernization can’t be imposed or sustained from outside, but it can be helped if that help is tailored wisely to the conditions of each society, with full respect for the culture and history of each society, for the desires of the people of each of the nations that we will be working with.

We believe that reform will ultimately be successful because freedom and democracy are powerful universal values, not just Western or American values.

The truth of that proposition is clear in the fact that most of the world’s Muslims already live in democratic societies, stretching from Indonesia to Mali.

And of course we approach our engagement in partnership with others -- not only with reformers and democratic leaders in the Muslim world, but with democratic governments and publics in Europe, East Asia and elsewhere.

That’s what the G-8 Forum for the Future is all about: a new multi-continent partnership effort to support reform. We launched the Forum for the Future in New York at the UN at the end of September, with the participation of 28 foreign ministers from all over the industrialized world and from the broader Middle East and North Africa. We sat in New York and we talked about reform. We talked about modernization.

What was so impressive to me was the words that came back to the G-8 foreign ministers who were there, from the ministers of the region talking about what they were doing and what their people had as expectations and how we could work together to meet those expectations. And we dedicated ourselves to moving forward in this effort.

And I'm pleased that the first full meeting of the forum, with more nations involved, will be held in Morocco before the end of this year.

No matter how often we repeat the principles of our engagement with reform in the Muslim world, they’re not always understood or credited abroad. As Muslims who study or who live in America, we hope that you will serve as a bridge to help overcome the misunderstandings that slow the progress in which we all have such a great stake.

You won’t be alone. Through the Middle East Partnership Initiative, we’ve been producing ambassadors of change, ambassadors of change that have gone from their experience here back out in the region over the past several years.

In particular, MEPI programs, as we call them, concentrate on training youth with the skills to succeed, to enhance those skills, to empower women to become full participants and leaders in their communities and in their economies.

One MEPI youth leader from Syria is starting his own magazine at the University of Aleppo – the first student-run magazine of its kind.

This student, Ahmed, and his fellow student leaders from around the region, are learning essential leadership and civic engagement skills through MEPI’s "Student Leaders" Institutes.

We’re establishing a regional association for female legal professionals and are supporting literacy programs for women.

We’ve encouraged and financed female-only internet cafes, to meet the cultural needs of Muslim communities and to meet those needs in a respectful manner.

This winter, the "Meet Us" program for Arab businesswomen will bring established professionals to the United States to observe and actively participate in the management of leading businesses and to gain training in mini-M-B-A courses.

We’ve also set up internships with major multi-national companies for younger Arab business leaders, especially businesswomen – and 11 of those young businesswomen are here tonight with us.

Mayada, from Jordan, is doing an I/T internship at Corning.

Faten, from Lebanon, is interning in management at the Longaberger Company in Dresden, Ohio.

I had the opportunity to meet all of them a few months ago, and I hope to hear more about the projects they're working on before the evening is over.

Let me close by hoping that we all take to heart, take very much to heart, the dedication to cooperation, to compassion and community being renewed during Ramadan by Muslims all over the world.

I thank you for being with us this evening. I assure you that President Bush, in his next four years in office, will be aggressively moving forward to deal with the concerns that are in your hearts and on your minds, with respect to the Middle East peace process, with respect to reform and modernization, with respect to solidifying democracy in places that have never known democracy before, with respect to fighting terrorism, and in the United States the nations you represent will find no better friend and partner.

So once again, let us rededicate ourselves to the values that the Iman spoke so movingly about, and may that dedication bring prosperity and peace to us, prosperity and peace to our brothers, sisters, and friends everywhere, Muslim and non-Muslim alike.

Ramadan Kareem. Thank you.