OU hails Obama mosque trip for embracing religious diversity

In a bid to promote inter-faith harmony, the United States President Barack Obama visited a mosque in Baltimore for the first time since he took over the White House. It’s the kind of effort that Muslim-Americans say they’ve been waiting for from America’s political and religious leaders. “Like all Americans, you’re anxious about the threat of terrorism, but on top of that, as Muslim-Americans, you also have another concern, and that is your entire community so often is targeted or blamed for the violent acts of the very few”, the US President said.

In Baltimore, Obama alluded to his own Christian faith – and also acknowledged that many Americans believe he’s actually a Muslim.

Obama’s address also came at a time when nearly half of Americans think at least some U.S. Muslims have traces of animosity toward the United States.

Obama has visited mosques in the past, but never inside the USA, which is home to 2.75 million Muslims, according to the Pew Research Centre.

During a visit to the Islamic Society of Baltimore on Wednesday, Obama thanked Muslim Americans for their contribution to the country and reaffirmed the importance of religious freedom to the American way of life. It was in these mosques, he said, where an overwhelming majority of Muslims worked to build “bridges of understanding with other faiths, Christians, Jews” and ran health centres and taught their children.

Funnily enough, Obama even joked about the Obama-is-a-Muslim conspiracy theory, saying that he was not the only victim of such rumours.

Muslim Americans and interfaith activists welcomed Obama’s speech, though some critics argued that his gesture comes too late. “So I was not the first”, Obama said, sparking laughter. “You’re Muslim and American”.

CAIR has tracked a growing number of attacks on mosques and on individuals in the months following the Paris terrorist attack and the shooting rampage in San Bernardino, California.

“I am not the first”, he said. “Whoever wants to enter paradise, the Prophet Muhammad taught, let him treat people the way he would love to be treated…The world’s 1.6 billion Muslims are as diverse as humanity itself”, he said.

As the 2016 presidential race has worn on, voters have heard some Republican candidates become increasingly explicit in their anti-Muslim rhetoric.

“I would urge all of you not to see this as a burden but as a great opportunity and a great privilege to show who you are”, he said.