In what was his first visit to a mosque in the United States as President, Barack Obama on Wednesday came down hard on anti-Muslim bigotry, commenting that “inexcusable political rhetoric against Muslim Americans has no place in our country.”
In an obvious reference to Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump’s repeated calls for a “temporary ban” on the entry of Muslims into the United States, Obama said: “We have to understand that an attack on one faith is an attack on all our faiths.”
“When any religious group is targeted, we all have a responsibility to speak up,” he said, amid cheers from a large gathering of Muslim Americans at the Islamic Society of Baltimore on Wednesday.
Regretting that the whole Muslim community was being targeted or blamed for the violent acts of a few, Obama said: “Many only hear about Muslims and Islam from the news after an act of terrorism, or in distorted media portrayals in TV or film, all of which gives this hugely distorted impression.”
Since 9/11, and more recently, since the attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, one has seen people conflating the horrific acts of terrorism with the beliefs of an entire faith, he said, adding: “We’ve heard inexcusable political rhetoric against Muslim Americans that has no place in our country.”