First US mosque visit: Obama slams anti-Muslim rhetoric

Mr Obama, declaring that attacks on Islam were an attack on all religions, decried the “inexcusable political rhetoric” against Muslims from Donald Trump and other Republican presidential candidates.

In an interview with Radio Sputnik’s “Loud & Clear”, McCaw said Obama’s visit was “something that communicates from the administration to the American public that yes, Muslims are our neighbors, they contribute to this nation, they are one of us”. There has been a documented increase in hate crimes against Muslims in the US since the Paris and San Bernardino attacks, while politicians have fiercely debated USA policy to accept Syrian refugees, who are mostly Muslim.

President Obama is scheduled to visit the Islamic Society of Balitmore Wednesday, a mosque critics say has long-been linked to terrorism.

“So I was not the first”, Obama said to laughter.

Calling them a part of America, he said, “You’re right where you belong”.

“Groups like ISIL are desperate for legitimacy”, Obama said at the Islamic Society of Baltimore. “That’s how we show the lie that they’re trying to propagate”, he said.

But many Muslims weren’t impressed, accusing Obama of hypocrisy and “anti-Muslim policies”, using the Twitter hashtag #TooLateObama.

Mr Obama acknowledged that this was a time of “concern and frankly of some fear” for Muslim Americans. This is Obama’s first visit to a mosque as president – although George W. Bush also visited a mosque in New York City after the attacks of 9/11. He said “Muslim-Americans keep us safe”.

“When politicians insult Muslims, whether overseas or our fellow citizens, when a mosque is vandalized, or a kid is called names, that doesn’t make us safer”.

Obama made the remarks after visiting with a roundtable of Muslim community members at the Islamic Society of Baltimore, which Obama said received two threats a year ago.

To counter perverted versions of their religion portrayed by extremist groups such as IS, Obama urged regular Muslims to “let your light shine”, a Christian expression.

“We in this community have become very vigilant about the fact that we want to be sure that nobody in our community who’s frequent to Mosque gets into that radical kind of thinking”, said Shaikh.

POTUS later spoke privately with 12 Muslim-American leaders, which included students, activists, Quran scholars and doctors.