In a strong rebuttal to ambience of hatred against Muslim Americans fueled partly by some presidential candidates, President Barack Obama has urged Americans to stay true to their core values that includes freedom of religion for all faiths.
Before a large audience at an Islamic center in Baltimore city, President Obama took a swipe at attempts to equate horrific acts of terrorism with Islam, and said that political rhetoric against Muslims Americans had no place in the United States.
“We are one American family. We will rise and fall together,” he said with a word of caution that it wouldn’t be easy. “There will be times where our worst impulses are given voice. But I believe that ultimately, our best voices will win out. And that gives me confidence and faith in the future.”
His first visit to an American mosque in his 7-year of presidency comes amid some Republican candidates’s rhetoric against plans for acceptance of Syrian refugees, and vandalization of some mosques in the aftermath of attacks in Paris and Sand Bernardino. Some Republican presidential candidates used the recent militant attacks as political hype to attract conservative votes.
President Obama and Hillary Clinton, Democratic front-runner, have outrightly rejected attempts by those who view Islamic faith through the prism of terrorism, drawing attention to contribution by American Muslims to the greater America. A lot of Republican mainstream politicians have also taken exception to policies being propagated by politicians including billionaire businessman Donald Trump.
“Muslim Americans keep us safe. They’re our police and our firefighters. They’re in homeland security, in our intelligence community. They serve honorably in our armed forces — meaning they fight and bleed and die for our freedom,” President Obama said amid applause.
“Generation of Muslim Americans helped to build our nation,” he said punctuating his speech with historical references that date back to as far as the country’s colonial history, when slaves were brought to the newly discovered country from Africa, many of them Muslims. Many became farmers and merchants.
For many, it was not just speech but several historical facts they probably heard for the first time. For instance, the first Islamic center in New York City was built in the 1890s. A Muslim American designed the skyscrapers of Chicago.
Back then, Obama recalled, Muslims were often called “Mahometans”. Thomas Jefferson, a key figure in American history, had then said the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom he wrote was designed to protect all faiths – “the Jew and the Gentile, the Christians and Mahometan”.
He said that Jefferson and John Adams, the second President of the United States, had their own copies of the Quran. “Benjamin Franklin wrote that “even if the Mufti of Constantinople were to send a missionary to preach us, he would find a pulpit at his service.”
Speaking of today, he said being a relatively small community, many Americans only hear about Muslims after an act of terrorism “or in distorted media portrayals in TV or film, all of which gives this hugely distorted impression”.
He reminded his countrymen that how Muslim communities were standing up for others. “There are Muslims in Kenya who saved Christians from terrorists, and Muslims who just met in Morocco to protect religious minorities, including Christians and Jews….Muslim Americans across the country helped African American churches rebuild after arson.”
But as the overwhelming majority of the world’s Muslims embrace Islam as a source of peace, Obama said a small fraction of Muslims propagate a perverted interpretation of Islam. “This is the truth.
He alluded to groups like al Qaeda and ISIL which were misusing religion by selectively drawing from Islamic texts and twisting them to justify their killing and their terror. “They combine it with false claims that America and the West are at war with Islam.”
For the President, the way forward is the inter-faith harmony.
“When others are trying to divide us along lines of religion or sect, we have to reaffirm that most fundamental of truths: We are all God’s children. We’re born equal, with inherent dignity….So all of us have the task of expressing our religious faith in a way that seeks to build bridges rather than to divide.”
And, as Americans, the President said:” We have to stay true to our core values, and that includes freedom of religion for all faiths.”
“And so if we’re serious about freedom of religion — and I’m speaking now to my fellow Christians who remain the majority in this country — we have to understand an attack on one faith is an attack on all our faiths. And when any religious group is targeted, we all have a responsibility to speak up. And we have to reject a politics that seeks to manipulate prejudice or bias, and targets people because of religion.”
And as all Americans have responsibility to reject discrimination, Obama said, Muslims around the world have responsibility to reject extremist ideologies that are trying to penetrate within Muslim communities.
Across the Islamic world, influential voices should consistently speak out with an affirmative vision of their faith, the President said, noting with satisfaction that it was happening. He urged Muslim political leaders to push back on the lie that the West oppresses Muslims.
He said as Muslim communities stand up for the future that they believe in, American will be their partner. “We will – I will – do everything I can to lift up the multiplicity of Muslim voices that promote pluralism and peace.”
Speaking directly to the young people, Obama advised them not to subscribe to a world view that suggests you must choose between your faith and your patriotism – ignore voices over Internet that calls to choose between identities – as a Muslim or an American.
“You’re not Muslim or American. You’re Muslim and American.”
