{"id":6399,"date":"2016-01-31T21:34:23","date_gmt":"2016-01-31T21:34:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/english.thesunrisetoday.com\/?p=6399"},"modified":"2016-01-31T21:34:23","modified_gmt":"2016-01-31T21:34:23","slug":"obama-to-call-for-religious-freedom-in-a-us-mosque","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/english.thesunrisetoday.com\/index.php\/obama-to-call-for-religious-freedom-in-a-us-mosque\/","title":{"rendered":"Obama to call for religious freedom in a US mosque"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Obama\"<\/a>President Obama will make his first visit as president to a US mosque next week in a defense of religious freedom, the White House said, following a rise in anti-Muslim rhetoric in the United States.
\nObama will visit on Wednesday the Islamic Society of Baltimore mosque, where he will hold a round-table with the community and deliver remarks, a White House official said on Saturday.
\nThis is part of the the administration\u2019s push to promote religious tolerance at a time when rhetoric linking Islam with terrorism is growing, it said.
\nAt the mosque, the president will \u201creiterate the importance of staying true to our core values, welcoming our fellow Americans, speaking out against bigotry, rejecting indifference, and protecting our nation\u2019s tradition of religious freedom,\u201d the official said.
\nHe has visited mosques outside the United States on his trips abroad.
\nObama, a Democrat in his last year as president, has appealed to Americans to reject anti-Muslim comments by politicians, most notably Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump.
\nTrump, who is leading the Republican field in opinion polls, called for a ban on Muslim visitors to the United States after a Muslim couple inspired by militants killed 14 people in a shooting in San Bernardino, California, in early December.
\nIn an e-mail, a White House official said that President Obama is making the visit \u201cto celebrate the contributions Muslim Americans make to our nation and reaffirm the importance of religious freedom to our way of life.\u201d
\n\u201cThe President believes that one of our nation\u2019s greatest strengths is our rich diversity and the very idea that Americans of different faiths and backgrounds can thrive together \u2014 that we\u2019re all part of the same American family. As the President has said, Muslim Americans are our friends, and neighbors; our co-workers, and sports heroes \u2014 and our men and women in uniform defending our country.\u201d
\nAt the Islamic Society, the president will hold a roundtable discussion with community members, the official said.
\nAccording to a Gallup poll in December, Americans are now more likely to name terrorism as the top issue facing the US than any other issue.
\nThe Islamic Society of Baltimore is a sprawling community center in the city\u2019s western suburbs that serves thousands of people with a place of worship, a housing complex and schools, according to its website. It is one of the Mid-Atlantic region\u2019s largest Muslim centers and describes itself as aspiring \u201cto be the anchor of a growing Muslim community with diverse backgrounds, democratically governed, relating to one another with inclusiveness and tolerance, and interacting with neighbors in an Islamic exemplary manner.\u201d
\nThe visit will be part of the tightrope-walking Obama has done during his presidency around Islam.
\nFor years, Muslim Americans have lobbied him to visit a mosque, citing Islamophobia. At the same time, a segment of Obama\u2019s critics have said since he took office that he is a Muslim pretending to be Christian, and that he plays down the religious aspect of Muslim extremism. Recent polls show that 29 percent of Americans and nearly 45 percent of Republicans think he is a Muslim. The visit comes in the last year of his presidency.
\nThe possibility of a mosque visit came up again a month ago, when several prominent Muslim Americans met with senior White House officials to discuss concerns about rising hostility toward people of their faith. During that session \u2014 which was attended by White House senior adviser Valerie Jarrett, Domestic Policy Council director Cecilia Mu\u00f1oz and deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes \u2014 the Islamic leaders asked for Obama to visit a mosque, ideally with former president George W. Bush.
\nPresidents rarely visit houses of worship, aside from when they have attended church for their own religious practices. Obama regularly attends religious services on key holidays. In May, he visited a synagogue for the first time as president.
\nIn 2001, Bush visited the Islamic Cultural Center of Washington, six days after the 9\/11 terrorist attacks, where he declared, \u201cIslam is peace,\u201d and \u201cthe face of terror is not the true faith of Islam.\u201d
\nWhile Islamophobia has been an issue for some time, particularly as the Islamic State has gained strength in Iraq and Syria, it intensified once Republican lawmakers and presidential candidates began calling for a halt to refugees from the Mideast after terrorist strikes in Paris and San Bernardino, California, late last year.
\nSen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) and former Florida governor Jeb Bush (R) have suggested screening asylum seekers on the basis of religion and accepting only Christians. And in December, Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump called for a \u201ctotal and complete shutdown\u201d of the entry of Muslims to the United States \u201cuntil our country\u2019s representatives can figure out what is going on.\u201d
\nMore broadly, Cruz and several other Republicans have criticized Obama and Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton for refusing to use the phrase \u201cradical Islam\u201d when discussing terrorist activities.
\nObama has increasingly spoken out against the anti-Muslim rhetoric.
\n\u201cWhen politicians insult Muslims, whether abroad or our fellow citizens, when a mosque is vandalized, or a kid bullied, that doesn\u2019t make us safer,\u201d he said during his State of the Union address this month. \u201cThat\u2019s not telling it like it is. It\u2019s just wrong. It diminishes us in the eyes of the world. It makes it harder to achieve our goals. It betrays who we are as a country.\u201d
\nSpeaking at the Israeli Embassy Wednesday night at the first Righteous Among Nations awards banquet held in the United States, the president said the impulse to stigmatize people of other faiths is \u201cdeep within us.\u201d
\n\u201cToo often, especially in times of change, especially in times of anxiety and uncertainty, we are too willing to give into a base desire to find someone else, someone different, to blame for our struggles,\u201d the president said. \u201cAn attack on any faith is an attack on all of our faiths.\u201d<\/p>\n

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