In a gesture that American Muslims say they’ve long waited for, U.S. president Barack Obama visited the Islamic Society of Baltimore, Maryland, today (Feb. 3) to make a statement opposing bigotry and supporting religious freedom.
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Mr. Obama has appeared at mosques elsewhere and has made similar remarks on other occasions, but this was his first visit to an American mosque, a setting Dr. Sherif Elfass, President of the Northern Nevada Muslim Community, says had special impact.
We are grateful for that…we’ve heard inexcusable political rhetoric against Muslim-Americans that has no place in our country…We have to understand: An attack on one faith is an attack on all our faiths…Muslim Americans keep us safe.
Trump, the frontrunner for the Republican nomination, called for a ban on Muslims entering the USA after the recent mass shooting in San Bernardino, California, where 14 people were killed in an attack by a Muslim couple that was allegedly inspired by the Islamic State (IS).
He said he was now going to say two words that Muslim “do not hear often enough, thank you”.
He said too often Americans link the Muslim religion Islam with terrorism and blame the entire Muslim community for the “violent acts of a few”.
It was clear that Obama was speaking not just to the audience gathered at the Islamic Society of Baltimore, but also more broadly to an American public unfamiliar with the tenets of Islam.
For years, Obama has fought incorrect claims that he’s actually a Muslim and was born in Kenya.
“Most of the Muslim population in America, right now, feels very insecure”, said Ajazuddin Shaikh.
Many Republicans have criticized President Barack Obama for not identifying the Islamic State and other terrorist groups as Muslim.
“An attack on one faith is an attack on all our faiths”, said Obama, noting that it is the global task of all religious faithful to condemn violence. He also criticised the media and Hollywood, which he said portray Muslims in a narrow way.
“It’s certainly true that we have seen an alarming willingness on the part of some Republicans to try to marginalize law-abiding, patriotic, Muslim-Americans”, he said. So I know I am in a good company, he said.
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The visit, Obama’s first to a U.S. mosque, was aimed at showing Americans another side of Islam.
