The visit was seen as a direct rebuke to some of the GOP’s campaign trail rhetoric, such as when Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump called in December for a ban on Muslims coming to the United States.
Advertisement
As CNSNews.com previously reported, Obama’s visit to the Islamic Society of Baltimore is the first time the president has visited a mosque inside the United States.
At the Islamic Society of Baltimore, a suburban campus with a mosque and K-12 school, Obama sat down around a large table with Muslim university chaplains, community activists and public health professionals for a discussion about religious tolerance and freedom.
The president, who is a Christian, said it was important to have more Muslim characters portrayed on television unrelated to national security themes, and he said engagement with Muslim-American communities must not be a cover for surveillance. Two months later, he took fire after he did not correct a questioner at a New Hampshire town hall who said Obama is Muslim. “Well I agree we actually do need moral clarity”, he said.
“Recently we’ve heard inexcuseable political rhetoric against Muslim Americans”.
In July, Trump said he was still not convinced Obama was born in the United States. We celebrate and lift up the success of Muslim-Americans. And personally, reassures me that I, a proud black, Muslim African American, am just as American and have the obligation to fulfill my loyalty to my country as any other.
“We can’t securitize our entire relationship with Muslim-Americans”.
Obama has visited mosques in Malaysia, Indonesia and Egypt as president, but this was his first visit to one of America’s 2,000-plus places of Islamic worship.
Diament noted that Obama’s visit comes on the eve of his annual address to the National Prayer Breakfast, which is organized by a Christian group.
“As an American I’m proud of our president who stood with a small group, Muslim Americans, who are facing a lot of prejudice and some crime”, said Dr. Elfass.
The US president denounced the “extremist elements” who twist Islamic text into violent ideology.
Obama pointed out that the founding fathers also supported the religion of Islam.
Advertisement
Muslim community leaders have repeatedly encouraged the president to visit a mosque and speak out against the stigmatization of Muslims in the country.
