In first, Obama set to visit US mosque

US President Barack Obama’s first visit to a US mosque comes as Muslim-Americans say they’re confronting increasing levels of bias in speech and deeds.

Obama is scheduled to visit the Islamic Society of Baltimore on Wednesday. Its campus contains a mosque and school that runs from kindergarten through 12th grade.

Last week, Obama became the first sitting president to speak at the Israeli Embassy. In remarks at the embassy, he warned of growing anti-Semitism in the world.

Obama’s message in Baltimore will follow a similar tack. The White House said he will focus on the need to speak out against bigotry and reject indifference. It’s the kind of effort that Muslim-Americans said they’ve been waiting for from America’s political and religious leaders.

“For some time, we’ve been asking for pushback. Perhaps this will start a trend,” says Ibrahim Hooper, a spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

Attendees at the Baltimore mosque are predominantly of Turkish heritage, although immigrants of other nationalities also participate, says Akbar Ahmed, an Islamic studies specialist at American University who has researched mosques around the US.

Obama “left it literally to the last” to visit a US mosque, Ahmed notes, “but better late than never.”

Ahmed says the visit will be reassuring to US Muslims amid the heightened rhetoric of the 2016 presidential campaign. “The president going there means he hasn’t forgotten us,” Ahmed says.

Obama will also be sending a signal to the world that the US has not abandoned its commitment to religious pluralism, Ahmed says.

— AP