President Barack Obama made his first visit to a US mosque, in an effort to allay the fears of Americans accustomed to pop-culture portrayals of Muslims as terrorists, and to reassure Muslim American youth about their place in the nation.
Obama, declaring that attacks on Islam were an attack on all religions, decried the "inexcusable political rhetoric" against Muslims from Donald Trump and other Republican presidential candidates, Reuters reported.
“We have to understand that an attack on one faith is an attack on all our faiths," he said at the mosque outside of Baltimore, which he said had received threats twice in the past year. "When any religious group is targeted, we all have a responsibility to speak up."
Trump, the Republican front-runner, called for a temporary ban on Muslims entering the United States after authorities described a California couple who killed 14 people last December as radicalized Muslims inspired by Islamic State militants.
Obama's visit was aimed at showing Americans another side of Islam.
"Think of your own church or synagogue or temple, and a mosque like this will be very familiar," said Obama, who, following Islamic custom, took off his shoes to enter the hall.
