President Obama will use his visit to the Islamic Society of Baltimore on Wednesday to push back against anti-Muslim rhetoric on the presidential campaign trail and growing anti-Muslim sentiment in the electorate, a White House spokesman said on Tuesday.
“I think is certainly true that we have seen an alarming willingness on the part of some Republicans to try to marginalize law-abiding, patriotic Muslim Americans, and it is offensive,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest said.
Obama’s message to Muslims and all Americans is to underscore “the important role that Muslim Americans play in our society and to affirm our conviction in the principle of religious liberty, that law-abiding Americans should be able to worship God in the manner that they see fit, consistent with their religious heritage and traditions in a way that doesn’t subject them to either interference from the government or, frankly, divisive rhetoric on the campaign trail,” Earnest said.
Earnest said that suggestions, such as those by real estate mogul Donald Trump that the U.S. should bar all Muslims for entering the country, run counter to America’s principles.
“I think it’s just offensive to a lot of Americans who recognize that those kinds of cynical political tactics run directly contrary to the values that we hold dear in this country,” Earnest said.
Earnest acknowledged that in the wake of the Islamic extremists attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, Calif., Americans of all political stripes were anxious. And while some resented Muslim-Americans, only Republican candidates have sought to capitalize on that xenophobia, he said.
“It has been a transparent strategy on the part of Republicans to play on people’s anxieties, to target religious minorities, to advance their political ambition,” he said.
