For Immediate Release Washington, DC | KARAMAH | – February 3, 2016
KARAMAH was invited to join President Obama in his first visit during his presidency to a U.S. Mosque. President Obama visited the Islamic Society of Baltimore to promote religious tolerance. We applaud the President’s decision to visibly and publicly engage with the American Muslim community.
This visit came at a time when Muslim Americans have become increasingly stigmatized with a rising tide of anti-Muslim sentiment fueled by islamophobia and dangerous xenophobic rhetoric. President Obama’s visit sends a strong message about the place of Muslims in America and the importance of guaranteeing religious freedom and civil liberties for all.
“If we are serious about freedom of religion we have to understand that attack on one faith is attack on all our faiths,” said the President condemning anti-Muslim rhetoric. Freedom of religion is a fundamental principle upon which this nation was founded and is guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution: “no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States.” Moreover, as President Obama stated today, when enshrining religious freedom in the Constitution, the Founding Fathers meant the religious freedom protections to be applied to all religions. However, Muslims and other religious minorities are still faced with second-class citizens treatment every day. Muslims are discriminated against, bullied and attacked for the mere fact of being Muslim. We need to remember the principles upon which our country was founded and secure our rights, now more than ever, for our next generation.
We commend President Obama’s recognition of the efforts of Muslim scholars condemning extremist ideologies at the international level and specifically at the recent Marrakesh Conference in Morocco. It is worth noting that KARAMAH’s Founder, Dr. Azizah al-Hibri, joined hundreds of Muslim scholars a few days ago at this conference condemning violence committed in the name of Islam and pledging to protect Non-Muslim Minorities. In her speech on the opening day, she stated: “the current state of affairs underscores the fact that some groups falsely raising the flag of Islam have decided to replace Islamic values with their own anti-humanistic ones.” We join President Obama in emphasizing that we need to amplify these voices.
We also applaud President Obama’s celebration of the contributions and achievements of generations of Muslim Americans who helped build our nation. It is indeed very poignant that at the beginning of black history month, the President spoke about the long-standing history of Muslims in America – a history that is traced to America’s inception. For as he pointed out, many of the slaves who were brought to America were Muslim, and many of them strove to maintain their religion even in bondage. It is also very meaningful that he was introduced today by a brilliant Black Muslim woman, Sabah Mukhtar, thus busting prejudice about Muslim women and demonstrating that American Muslims in their diversity “have an obligation to fulfill [their] loyalty to [their] country as any other.”
We welcome the President’s remarks and sentiment when he stated that it is necessary to partner with Muslim Americans to build strong resilient communities. The President also noted that engagement with Muslim Americans is not a cover for surveillance.
Since its inception, KARAMAH has contributed to the national discourse on religious freedoms and protections guaranteed by the First and the Fourteenth Amendments of the United States Constitution. KARAMAH will pursue its work to overcome xenophobia and intolerance through advocacy and education and we hope that the Muslim American experiences and contributions will be lifted-up not only during trying times, but all the time, because Muslim American History is American History.
Watch President Obama’s Speech at the Islamic Society of Baltimore here
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