WASHINGTON, July 26: US President Barack Obama has said that a key part of America’s engagement with Muslim communities around the world has to be supporting economic opportunity and entrepreneurship.

Addressing his fifth iftar-dinner at the White House since coming to power five years ago, President Obama praised Muslim-Americans for their contributions to America’s development.

“Even as we support citizens seeking to determine their own destiny, a key part of our engagement with Muslim communities around the world has to be supporting economic opportunity and entrepreneurship,” he said.

Mr Obama said his administration had launched an annual entrepreneurship summit to spur innovation and business growth in Muslim communities and announced that he would attend the next summit during his visit to Southeast Asia for the Asean meeting later this year.

Mr Obama’s guests for Thursday night dinner included three Muslim American entrepreneurs — Shazi Visram, the founder and CEO of Happy Family Organic Superfoods; Adam Hussein, an inventor who is venturing into the field of video games for social good; and Iya Khalil, a biotech expert. Other guests included Muslim ambassadors, members of Congress, US National Security Adviser Susan Rice, senior adviser Valerie Jarrett, chief of staff Tina Tchen and the First Lady.

Guests were seated on 13 tables, each with nine or 10 people and covered beautiful grey-blue tablecloths with pewter collared floral design and green-and-blue flower arrangements.

Mr Obama began his remarks with “Ramadan Kareem,” and said, “As the Quran teaches, whoever does an atom's weight of good will see its results.”

“Muslim Americans and their good works have helped to build our nation, and we've seen the results,” he said.

“Throughout our history, Islam has contributed to the character of our country, and Muslim-Americans, and their good works, have helped to build our nation — and we've seen the results. We've seen those results in generations of Muslim immigrants - farmers and factory workers, helping to lay the railroads and build our cities,” he said.

He noted that Muslim innovators had helped build some of the highest skyscrapers in the United States and also had made major contributions to space science, unlocking the secrets of the universe.

“Every day, Muslim Americans are helping to shape the way that we think and the way that we work and the way that we do business. And that's the spirit that we celebrate tonight — the dreamers, the creators whose ideas are pioneering new industries, creating new jobs and unleashing new opportunities for all of us,” Mr Obama said.