US President Barack Obama visit Baltimore mosque

President Obama mounted a defense Wednesday of American Muslims who have found themselves under scrutiny amid the rise of ISIS, using his first visit to a mosque while in office to proclaim that “we are are one America family”.

Muslims, who are estimated to make up almost 1 percent of the US population, have faced increasing discrimination and hostility in the wake of deadly attacks in San Bernardino, Calif., and Paris linked to the self-declared Islamic State, Muslims and others say.

“Obviously, we wouldn’t want people to take away from that a wrong impression about who we are as America, because it doesn’t represent American values”, Kirby said.

“Inexcusable political rhetoric against Muslims that has no place in our country”, Obama said. Many of them, he said, are actively fighting it.

Obama implored Americans of all faiths to play an active role in defending religious freedom and not be “bystanders to bigotry”.

“It has been a transparent strategy on the part of Republicans to play on people’s anxieties, to target religious minorities to advance their political ambition”, Earnest said.

White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest condemned the rhetoric used by “some Republicans to try to marginalize law-abiding, patriotic Muslim Americans” – not naming Trump specifically.

The role of Islam in the US has become a hot button issue in the current presidential race with one Republican candidate going as far as to demand a “total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States”.

He said that while America must unite to fight terrorism, such stance against Muslims will reiterate behavior similar to the terrorists.

Mr Obama also moved to reassure Muslim American youth about their place in the nation.

President Barack Obama at the Islamic Society of Baltimore, Feb. 3, 2016. “This is the truth”, Obama said. However, when respondents were asked which religion they consider troubling, Islam was the most common answer. “Engagement with Muslim American communities must never be a cover for surveillance”.

Almost half of Americans think at least some U.S. Muslims are anti-American, according to a new Pew Research Center poll released Wednesday.