President Obama Visits U.S. Mosque

Barack Obama visited a United States mosque on Wednesday for the first time since becoming president in a public show of support for Muslim-Americans and freedom of religion.

The president, who has previously visited mosques around the world, has been called on by many Muslim groups to stop by a U.S. mosque. Scheduling such a visit has proved tricky for the Christian president who nearly one in three Americans believe to be a closet Muslim himself. During his roundtable with Muslim leaders and community members at the Islamic Society of Baltimore Obama said “An attack on one faith is an attack on all our faiths, we have to be consistent in condemning hateful rhetoric ... none of us can be bystanders to bigotry”. Muslim-Americans keep up safe. They are our police. They are our fire fighters. They're in the Department of Homeland Security”
 
The president's visit also came in the middle of the growing Islamophobia in the U.S. particularly among top GOP presidential contenders including Donald Trump.  Obama has spoken out in support of Muslim-Americans in the past, particularly after Trump's widely panned proposal to ban all Muslims from entering the U.S. Obama said at the annual House Democratic Caucus retreat in Baltimore on Thursday that “We are not going to strengthen our leadership around the world by allowing politicians to insult Muslims or pit groups of Americans against each other, that's not who we are. That's not keeping America safe”.