Decrying anti-Muslim bias, Obama pays 1st visit to US mosque

[jpak]

Source: Washington Post

CATONSVILLE, Md. — President Barack Obama paid his first visit to a U.S. mosque on Wednesday, appealing for tolerance for America’s millions of Muslims and calling to confront the bias and stereotyping that he says is on the rise amid tough talk on terrorism in the presidential campaign.

At the Islamic Society of Baltimore, a suburban campus with a mosque and K-12 school, Obama sat down around a large table with Muslim university chaplains, community activists and public health professionals for a discussion about religious tolerance and freedom. He planned an afternoon speech focused on how the U.S. can more successfully confront extremism if it works with Muslims instead of branding all of them as potential enemies.

For Muslim advocates, Obama’s visit was a long-awaited gesture to a community that has warned of escalating vitriol against them that has accompanied the public’s concern about the Islamic State and other extremist groups. Although Obama has visited mosques overseas in the past, he waited until his final year in office to make such a visit at home, reflecting the sensitivity of the issue.

One of the participants meeting with Obama, Ibtihaj Muhammad, has qualified for a spot on the United States Olympic Team for the Rio de Janeiro 2016 Olympic Games. The White House said she’ll make history as the first United States Olympian to compete in a hijab.

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Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/obama-to-make-first-visit-of-his-presidency-to-a-us-mosque/2016/02/03/f19ed1a2-ca4e-11e5-b9ab-26591104bb19_story.html

[femmocrat]

1. It's on CNN, surprisingly.

MSNBC is showing Rubio.


"An attack on one faith is an attack on all our faiths." Good speech. Too bad no one knew it would be on.

[ericson00]

2. he should've chosen somewhere else

given what one of that mosque's leaders has said about gays

[7962]

3. Move along.......

[DinahMoeHum]

4. Please name such a place. . .

. . .'cause this "nothing-but-the-best-for-the-oppressed" attitude does nothing for either the Muslim community or the LGBT community.

[Uponthegears]

8. Didn't take long

For the Hillary supporters to throw Obama under the bus.

[mwrguy]

5. "She’ll make history as the first United States Olympian to compete in a hijab."

This is so very cool.

I wish I would have known that two days ago on World Hijab Day!

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

7. I think most of the Fencing competitors are mostly covered.

None of them, Islamic or not, wants to be perforated.

Anyway, best of luck to all the athletes.

[Bluenorthwest]

6. Obama, who ran a campaign full of anti gay clergy went to yet another such

cleric's place of worship to claim religions are protected from the criticisms his clerical friends heap onto others. What I most remember from Christianity is that we can expect to harvest the things we sow. I offer that faith communities who deal in invective and denigrating speech and actions toward others have been told by their own faiths that the bread they cast onto the waters is likely to return to them on the tides. I marvel that people given such instructions by their gods can then speak hate against others while expecting to get only loving kindness in return.