Obama visits US mosque, interact with community leaders

February 03, 2016 23:34

Amid growing anti-Muslim rhetoric in the US poll campaign, President Barack Obama today made his first visit to a mosque as part of his effort to assure the religious minority of their safety and security and celebrate religious diversity of the country.

However, Obama was greeted by two protesters as his motorcade rolled up to the Islamic Society of Baltimore.

"They were holding three signs, oddly, calling on Obama to not find Hamas," a White House pool report said.

A third protester with a bullhorn was also outside the fence of the Islamic Center. Soon after arriving at the mosque, Obama held a roundtable with eminent Muslim community leaders. Obama's mosque visit in the vicinity of the national capital comes amid increasing backlash against the Muslim community in particular the anti-Islam rhetoric coming from the Republican presidential candidates.

"We welcome his visit. Our organisation has advocated it for quite some time. It's an especially important gesture given the divisive climate we have witnessed in this election year," Rabiah Ahmed of the Islamic Society of Baltimore told PTI .

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