President Barack Obama visited the Islamic Society of Baltimore, a 47-year-old mosque with thousands of attendees, Obama plans to herald the contributions of Muslims to American society while issuing a forceful counterpoint to the language favored by…
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“The best way to fight terrorism is to show the USA does not suppress Islam and refute lies to the contrary”, Obama said in his historic address to Muslim community from a mosque in Baltimore, Maryland.
He urged not to equate Muslims and terrorists.
“Since 9/11 and more recently, since the attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, you’ve seen too often people conflating the horrific acts of terrorism with the beliefs of an entire faith”, he said.
“The first thing I want to say is two words that Muslim Americans don’t hear often enough – and that is, thank you, “President Obama said Wednesday. And by the way, radical Islam poses a threat to Muslims themselves”.
“We’ve seen children bullied, we’ve seen mosques vandalized”, said Obama. “You are Muslim and American”. “I think that you can got to lots of places”, Trump said. “You’re right where you belong”. The mosques are part of the American story as well, he added. “You’re Muslim and American”.
Obama said anyone who suggested that the United States was at war with Islam not only legitimized such groups as the Islamic State but also played into their hands.
“We must never give them that legitimacy”.
Despite receiving invitations from Muslim-American organizations throughout his presidency, Obama waited until his final year in office to visit a USA mosque.
Invoking the Prophet Mohammed and hailing the tolerance shown by American political icons from Thomas Jefferson to Dwight Eisenhower, Obama hit out at anti-Islamic sentiment that is “not who we are”.
The poll said 50 per cent of respondents think Obama’s successor “should be careful not to criticize Islam as a whole” while 40 per cent support frank talk “even if the statements are critical of Islam as a whole”. “I don’t know, maybe he feels comfortable there”.
“How do we defend ourselves against organizations that are bent on killing innocents?” he asked.
His meeting comes at a tense time for Muslim Americans in the wake of terror attacks by religious extremists in the USA and overseas, and as anti-Islam rhetoric flares on the campaign trail.
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Today, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has wooed conservative voters by demanding a ban on Muslim immigrants, while frontrunner Ted Cruz has advocated Christian-only admissions and championed “Judeo-Christian values”.
