“You fit in here”. Right here. You’re right where you belong.
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“But better late than never”, Akbar Ahmed, an Islamic studies expert at American University, told USA Today. Founded in 1969 by three doctors, the society now has about 3,000 congregants. The mosque follows a conservative strain of Sunni Islam but with a pragmatic bent, the Sun said.
The children led the audience, with some men in prayer caps and most women in head scarves, in the Pledge of Allegiance.
Obama has criticized the increasing anti-Islamic sentiment in the US before, implicitly calling out certain presidential candidates and recent comments from the 2016 campaign trail.
“So I was not the first”, Obama said to laughter from a hundred or so Muslims who gathered for his speech.
Obama pointed out that the founding fathers also supported the religion of Islam.
Mr Obama’s visit was aimed at showing Americans another side of Islam.
“When politicians insult Muslims, whether overseas or our fellow citizens, when a mosque is vandalized, or a kid is called names, that doesn’t make us safer”.
Funnily enough, Obama even joked about the Obama-is-a-Muslim conspiracy theory, saying that he was not the only victim of such rumours. “They are not defending Islam”. “We celebrate and lift up the success of Muslim-Americans”.
“I refuse to give them legitimacy. We shouldn’t play into terrorist propaganda”.
The Daily Mail reports that President Barack Obama visited his first American mosque at the Islamic Society of Baltimore. He noted that Jefferson, like himself, was accused of being a Muslim. “No, it’s true. Look it up”. “I don’t know, maybe he feels comfortable there”, Trump said Wednesday on Fox News’ “On the Record with Greta Van Susteren”.
While many prominent Republicans, including U.S. Sen.
Advocates applauded Obama’s decision to visit the mosque.
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“The President’s first visit to an American mosque is a significant step in the right direction and will hopefully encourage our nation’s political and religious leaders to join him in pushing back against rising Islamophobia”, Zainab Chaudry, outreach manager for CAIR Maryland, said in a statement. “That has no place in our country”, the president said in an obvious reference to Donald Trump’s suggestion of a ban on Muslim immigration.
