To honor the traditions in the mosque, President Barack Obama removed his shoes before entering the religious building and was seen walking into the room in just his socks.
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The US president denounced the “extremist elements” who twist Islamic text into violent ideology.
“An attack on one religion is an attack on all religions”, Obama said in his remarks.
Speaking in Catonsville, Maryland, Mr Obama also warned that unequal treatment for certain groups in society tears at his nation’s fabric. “As we protect our country from terrorism, we should not reinforce the ideas and the rhetoric of the terrorists themselves”.
In December, another Pew Research study found that 46 percent of Americans thought Islam is more likely than other religions to encourage violence and roughly half of the public said they were “very concerned” about the alleged rise of “Islamic extremism” in the country.
The proposals by Mr. Trump and Mr. Cruz to restrict Muslim immigrants came in the wake of terrorist attacks late past year in Paris and in San Bernardino, California.
He said he was now going to say two words that Muslim “do not hear often enough, thank you”. But Trump has continued to attract controversy on questions surrounding Obama and his background.
The overriding message, however, is that Obama visited a mosque in the first place to emphasize the religious diversity of the United States.
The US President started his tour of the Islamic Society of Baltimore, one of the largest mosques in the mid-Atlantic region, with a roundtable of Muslim community leaders.
Obama acknowledged the “battle of hearts and minds” taking place in parts of the Muslim community. I think it’s certainly offensive to a lot of Muslim Americans.
Obama called for “global pressure” to end the fights between Muslim sects that produces so much bloodshed.
As the president took the podium to speak in front of the Muslim-American crowd, his staff members and White House officials in attendance were greeted to seats that were outfitted with a Quran.
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Only half of Americans say they personally know a Muslim, however. “It is an attack on that golden rule at the heart of so many faiths – that we ought to do unto others as we would have done to us”. “Many Americans hear of Islam only in connection with terror”, Obama said in the city of Baltimore. So I’m not the first.
