Obama makes first trip to US mosque
Washington:Seven years into his presidency Barack Obama will make his first trip to an American mosque on Wednesday offering a symbolic rebuttal of harsh Republican election rhetoric against Muslims.
Obama whose grandfather converted to Islam will make the short helicopter ride to the Islamic Society of Baltimore mosque where he will meet community leaders and deliver remarks.
He has visited mosques from Malaysia to Indonesia and Egypt as president but has yet to visit one America's 2000-plus places of Islamic worship.
In 2009 a freshly elected Obama traveled to the Egyptian capital to call for a "new beginning" with the Muslim world.
Much of Obama's foreign policy agenda has focused on improving ties with Muslim nations from making a nuclear deal with Iran to improving ties with Indonesia and ending wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
But the effort has been stymied by continued confrontation with jihadist groups and military strikes in Afghanistan Iraq Libya Pakistan Somalia Syria and Yemen.
His latest effort to ease intra-faith relations comes as a shrill election debate has sullied America's image abroad and jihadist attacks in San Bernardino and Philadelphia threatened to shatter post-9/11 religious solidarity at home.
Six days after the 2001 attacks in New York and Washington then president George W. Bush visited the Islamic Center of Washington declaring "Islam is peace."
Today Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has wooed conservative voters by demanding a ban on Muslim immigrants while frontrunner Ted Cruz has advocated Christian-only admissions and championed "Judeo-Christian values."
AFP