Obama on Visit to Mosque: 'An Attack on One Faith Is An Attack on All Our Faiths'

In an attempt to counter harsh rhetoric about Muslims from Donald Trump and other Republican presidential candidates, President Barack Obama visited a mosque in Maryland on Wednesday and declared that attacks on Islam are an attack on all religions.

"We have to understand that an attack on one faith is an attack on all our faiths," Obama said at the mosque in Catonsville, a suburb west of Baltimore. "When any religious group is targeted, we all have a responsibility to speak up."

Trump, the frontrunner for the Republican nomination, called for a ban on Muslims entering the US after the recent mass shooting in San Bernardino, California, where 14 people were killed in an attack by a Muslim couple that was allegedly inspired by the Islamic State (IS).

Republicans vying to be the party's candidate for the November 8 presidential election also have argued against Obama's plan to accept 10,000 refugees fleeing Syria's war, saying it raised national security risks.

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Obama urged people watching on television who had never been to a mosque to think of it as similar to their own houses of worship.

"Think of your own church or synagogue or temple, and mosques like this will be very familiar," he said, standing shoeless at the podium in observation of the custom that calls for worshipers to remove their footwear before entering the mosque.

Before Obama's remarks, a man and woman did a recitation from the Quran, then an honor guard of two boys and two girls carried the American and Maryland state flags into the mosque. The children led the audience, with some men in prayer caps and most women in head scarves, in the US Pledge of Allegiance.

Obama urged young Muslims not to embrace a worldview that required them to choose between faith and patriotism.

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"You fit in here. Right here," he said. "You're not Muslim or American. You're Muslim and American."

The president, who is a Christian, said it was important to have more Muslim characters portrayed on television unrelated to national security themes, and he said engagement with Muslim-American communities must not be a cover for surveillance.

To counter perverted versions of their religion portrayed by extremist groups such as IS, Obama urged regular Muslims to "let your light shine," a Christian expression.

"This is a struggle between the peace-loving overwhelming majority of Muslims around the world and a radical tiny minority," he said. "Ultimately I'm confident that the overwhelming majority will win that battle."

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