In an act of tolerance, President Barack Obama will, for the first time, visit an American mosque this week to hold talks with Muslim community members.
Obama will visit with Muslim leaders at the Islamic Society of Baltimore on Wednesday, the White House said Saturday, reported NBC News. It will be the first time that Obama has visited an American mosque during his presidency, though he has toured mosques overseas.
The White House said that the purpose of the trip is to "celebrate the contributions Muslim Americans make to our nation and reaffirm the importance of religious freedom to our way of life." The president will deliver a speech stressing "the importance of staying true to our core values: welcoming our fellow Americans, speaking out against bigotry, rejecting indifference and protecting our nation's tradition of religious freedom," reported Fox News.
"The president believes that one of our nation's greatest strengths is our rich diversity," White House spokesman Keith Maley said, according to The Baltimore Sun. "As the president has said, Muslim Americans are our friends, and neighbors; our co-workers, and sports heroes - and our men and women in uniform defending our country."
Critics claim that the Islamic Society of Baltimore has ties to radical Islam.
For 15 years, the mosque was led by Mohamad Adam el-Sheikh, a former member of the Muslim Brotherhood in Sudan in the 1970s, according to The Daily Caller. He also served on an Islamic relief group that was designated as a terrorist organization by the Treasury Department in 2004, and, with the help of the Muslim Brotherhood, co-founded the Muslim American Society in Falls Church, Va.
El-Sheikh also served as imam at the infamous Dar al-Hijrah mosque in Falls Church, the same mosque that was once run by Anwar al-Awlaki, the American al-Qaida leader killed in a U.S. drone strike in 2011.
It was at Dar al-Hijrah where el-Sheikh defended the right of Palestinians to use suicide bombs against Israel under certain circumstances.
"If certain Muslims are to be cornered where they cannot defend themselves, except through these kinds of means, and their local religious leaders issued fatwas to permit that, then it becomes acceptable as an exceptional rule, but should not be taken as a principle," he said in 2004, according to The Washington Post.
