Maple Grove Family Invited to White House for Eid Celebration
In a New Hope office complex along Bass Lake Road, Amin Aaser runs his company, Noor Kids.
“We’ve been working on Noor Kids for 10 years,” said Aaser, a Maple Grove resident who’s the founder and executive director of Noor Kids.
Aaser’s company produces a series of books geared toward Muslim children to help them learn more about their faith.
“Our hope at Noor Kids is to help raise children that build a better world, and we hope that this is a contribution for our country,” Aaser said.
That contribution paid off in ways he could have never anticipated.
Last week, Aaser received an email from the White House to come to Washington, D.C., for a celebration of Eid al-Fitr.
“I couldn’t believe it,” Aaser said. “We thought it could have been a scam.”
The email turned out to be authentic.
The invitation Amin Aaser received from the White House for Monday’s Eid celebration.
Eid al-Fitr is the celebration to mark the end of the Holy Month of Ramadan. Aaser and his wife were among the 200 guests invited to mark the occasion Monday at the White House.
President Biden was joined by a group of dignitaries and community leaders from across the country.
“We send our warmest greetings in celebrating Eid all across the United States and, quite frankly, around the world,” President Biden said to the group.
Amin and his wife, Sana, at the White House.
Aaser took a selfie with the president and presented the first family with a box of books and a handwritten letter explaining how he’s working to raise a generation of Muslims that build a better world.
It was an experience he’ll never forget. In part, due to the surreal nature of it all, but most importantly because of what the event signifies.
“The most powerful message was, that of belonging,” Aaser said. “You don’t have to agree with everything the president says, you don’t have to agree with everything the government does, but we are a country made of diverse people and it’s through that diversity that we have strength.”
