Obama visited an Islamic mosque in Baltimore Wednesday, where he acknowledged the “hugely distorted” negative view Muslim-Americans have had to endure with the rise of terrorism-related violence by Islamist extremists.
Advertisement
Us President Barack Obama paid his first visit to a mosque in the United States and delivered a speech highlighting necessity of Muslim in the unity of America.
“Too often, people conflate the horrific acts of terrorism with the beliefs of an entire faith and of course lately, we’ve heard inexcusable political rhetoric against Muslim Americans”, said President Obama.
“We’ve seen children bullied, we’ve seen mosques vandalized”, Obama said, warning that such unequal treatment for certain groups in society tears at the nation’s fabric. This jab is likely at Trump, who says we need to ban Muslims from entering the country until we can get a better background checking system to ensure those entering our country are not terrorists. Mr Obama said that Islam had always been a part of America and numerous slaves brought here were Muslim and kept their faith alive. “We have to reject a politics that seeks to manipulate prejudice or bias and targets people because of religion”.
Trump largely dropped his effort after Obama produced his birth certificate, which showed he was born in Hawaii.
He lauded Muslim-Americans who were sports heroes, entrepreneurs and the architect behind the skyscrapers of Chicago.
The mosque began as a small Sunday gathering at the Johns Hopkins University but is now one of the largest and most influential Muslim communities in the Mid-Atlantic.
“Muslims over here would like to have just mutual respect”, said Shaikh.
President Barack Obama speaks at the Islamic Society of Baltimore in Windsor Mill, Maryland, Wednesday.
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.
The president has accused prominent political figures of using fear to win support, and said those tactics are dividing the country and fueling propaganda by terror groups like Islamic State and al-Qaida. “We must not give them legitimacy”, Obama said. “It’s true. Look it up”.
“The very word for Islam comes from salaam, peace”, Obama said.
Advertisement
According to the Pew Research Center, Islam is the fastest growing religion. “They’re not defending Islam”.
