Obama, declaring that attacks on Islam were an attack on all religions, decried the “inexcusable political rhetoric” against Muslims from Donald Trump and other Republican presidential candidates.
Advertisement
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) welcomed Obama at Islamic Society of Baltimore, where the USA president rejected “inexcusable political rhetoric” targeting Muslims.
It may have been President Barack Obama’s first visit to an American mosque, but his appearance at the Islamic Society of Baltimore on Wednesday was just the latest stop on Obama’s anti-Trump tour.
The survey also showed that many Americans think a substantial segment of the US Muslim population is anti-American.
Obama was introduced by Sabah Muktar, a University of Maryland, Baltimore County student who thanked him for using his visit to assure Muslim Americans that they should not feel threatened. “We can not be bystanders to bigotry”.
Barack Hussein Obama has had a complicated relationship with Muslims. This is Obama’s first visit to a mosque as president – although George W. Bush also visited a mosque in New York City after the attacks of 9/11.
“They try to portray themselves as religious leaders and holy warriors who speak for Islam. Oh, you know, basically implying that America is discriminating against Muslims”. But on Wednesday, the president was unequivocal. Obama said it’s easier to confront extremism by working with the Muslim community, instead of viewing all Muslims as potential threats.
“The first thing I want to say is two words that Muslim-Americans don’t hear often enough, and that is: thank you”, Mr Obama said at the start of his speech. “We still are targets of state violence”, one wrote on Twitter. Last May, Jewish American Heritage Month, Obama delivered remarks at Adas Israel, the oldest Jewish congregation in Washington, D.C. “We can’t give in to profiling entire groups of people because there is no single profile of a terrorist”, he said adding that engagement with a community cannot be used as a cover for surveillance.
He goes on to say that there is a “distorted” view of Muslims in America due to unsafe rhetoric and that extremists should not be “legitimized” with rhetoric that calls them Muslims.
Advertisement
“We’ve seen children bullied, we’ve seen mosques vandalized”, he said. On Thursday, the president will address the National Prayer Breakfast, whose attendees are mostly Christian – although members of other faiths do attend.
