Obama Calls Americans to Stand Against Islamophobia

During his visit to an USA mosque Wednesday, the first by a sitting American president, he compared himself to Thomas Jefferson, called for more Muslim television characters, blasted Republican rhetoric regarding Muslims and said, “for more than a thousand years people have been drawn to Islam’s message of peace”.

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.

And in a possible attack on the Republican candidate, Obama slammed “inexcusable political rhetoric against Muslim Americans”.

MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images Obama said many Americans have a “hugely distorted impression” of Muslims in America, and added that “an attack on one faith is an attack on all our faiths”.

He decried the recent surge in Islamophobia following the Paris and San Bernardino attacks, saying, “We’ve seen children bullied, we’ve seen mosques vandalized…It’s not who we are”.

“Many Americans hear of Islam only in connection with terror”, Obama said in the city of Baltimore.

On Wednesday, Obama said: “An attack on one faith is an attack on all our faiths”.

For Muslim advocates, Mr. Obama’s visit was a long-awaited gesture to a community that has warned of escalating vitriol against them that has accompanied the public’s concern about the Islamic State and other extremist groups. “It’s no surprise then that threats and harassment of Muslim Americans have surged”.

Rubio, who often stresses religious liberty and his own faith on the campaign trail, said Obama’s words at a Baltimore mosque were meant to divide, rather than unite, the American people. And Marco Rubio asked during a December debate: “Where is there widespread evidence that we have a problem in America with discrimination against Muslims?” “You’re Muslim and American”. “We’ve got to make sure that hate crimes are punished and that the civil rights all of Americans are upheld”.

“We have a president who refuses to use the term”. “So, I am in good company”.

Before addressing the congregation, Mr Obama had a closed-door meeting with Muslim community leaders.