US President Barack Obama has made his first visit to a mosque to denounce the anti-Islam rhetoric promoted by GOPers in the run-up to the 2016 presidential election, telling Muslims outside Baltimore that Christians "have to understand: An attack on one faith is an attack on all our faiths."
Obama attended Wednesday at the Islamic Society of Baltimore in Windsor Mill, Maryland, where he spoke against "hugely distorted impression" of Muslims in the country.
Anti-Muslim discourse was intensified by the Republican candidates, with billionaire Donald Trump in the vanguard, after terrorist bombings by Takfiri affiliates of Daesh in Paris and San Bernardo, California.
“You’ve seen, too often, people conflating the horrific acts of terrorism with the beliefs of an entire faith,” Obama said tacitly touching on the discourse, calling the rhetoric an “inexcusable” one with “no place” in the country.
“We have to reject a politics that seeks to manipulate prejudice or bias and targets people because of religion. We’ve got to make sure that hate crimes are punished and that the civil rights of all Americans are upheld.”
The US president, who had taken off his shoes as Muslims do to respect the place of worship, said he was “grateful” for the efforts that the Muslim community has made “to keep us as one American family.”
With PressTV
