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President Obama Visits American Mosque; All Muslims Often Blamed For Actions Of Few; Many Muslims Feel Like Second-Class Citizens; Obama Visits U.S. Mosque For First Time As President; Islam Rooted In Peace And Compassion. Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired February 03, 2016 - 13:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: -- is waning. President Obama arrived at the Islamic Society of Baltimore late this morning. He's now meeting with community leaders. He's expected to deliver formal remarks at any moment now. We'll have live coverage of the president visiting this mosque.

Let's go to our White House Correspondent Michelle Kosinski. She's joining us now live from the White House. Michelle, so, set the scene for us. Seven years into his presidency now, finally he's decided to visit a mosque. What was the decision? Why so late in his presidency?

MICHELLE KOSINSKI, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that's a good question. I mean, we asked that question, too, of the White House, and they didn't have an answer for that. Why hasn't he done this before? They wanted to focus on the reasons now. And they said, like, you know, look at the timing of it. He was recently at the Israeli embassy for an event. He has a prayer breakfast tomorrow. They felt like the scene was right for this kind of visit at this time. They really want to hit on religious freedom in America.

But another big question is how forceful is he going to be to counter the rhetoric that's been out there? And he has been pretty forceful in his remarks in the past, getting specific too with certain things that candidates have said, saying that's not what we're about. That plays into the hands of ISIS.

The White House press secretary getting even more specific in some of the remarks he said lately about the rhetoric, calling it hateful, cynical, pessimistic and dark.

So, we'll see exactly how political the president gets in his remarks. But keep in mind, he's in a religious setting. He's talking to religious and community leaders. But we do expect his remarks to be pretty lengthy, according to the press secretary. They could be any minute now -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Yes, we're getting ready. He's about to be introduced, we're told.

Michelle, specifically, I think, he has been angered as others have been angered, about remarks from Donald Trump, the Republican presidential candidate, saying there should be a temporary ban on all Muslims coming into the United States until the U.S. can figure out what's going on, as far as terrorism is concerned. I know the president has spoken out about that without necessarily referring specifically --

KOSINSKI: Exactly.

BLITZER: -- to the name of Donald Trump.

KOSINSKI: Yes, I was just going to say that. They -- he never mentions him by name. But the president has gotten pretty specific about certain things that have been said out there. We even asked the White House. You know, it seems like almost every day and every speech he's responding to the rhetoric that's out there. But the White House insists it's not about that. It's about American values. So, we expect him to really kind of frame it that way.

Again, they really want to hit on religious freedom, in general. The White House says they also want to talk about all the accomplishments of Muslim-Americans. And they also want to use his appearance to counter bigotry, in their words.

You know, Wolf, it was just in September that a CNN poll came out showing that about a third of all Americans and some 40 percent of Republicans believe that President Obama himself is a Muslim. And this is a subject that they really want to hit upon. The timing is right now -- Wolf.

BLITZER: We're going to have a lot more on the race for the White House coming up later this hour. I'll speak live with Democratic presidential candidate, Bernie Sanders. Yesterday, we spoke with Hillary Clinton during this hour.

Right now, I want to listen in had as the president of the United States is being introduced over at the Islamic Society of Baltimore. A student from the University of Maryland is speaking right now. Let's listen in.

SABAH MUKTAR: Never did I feel as though I wasn't part of the community. I was just as American and just another high schooler. And I was -- oh, I'm sorry. Assertions as such are what gave me the confidence to be who I am today. And I strongly believe, to a lot of Muslims out there, the appearance of our president in our local mosque today does exactly just that.

And, personally, he assures me that I, a proud, black Muslim American, I'm just as American and have the obligation to fulfill my loyalty to my country as any other.

So, thank you, Mr. President, for this historic visit that will serve to inspire every American to engage in the work of building bridges across communities.

And now, it is my honor to introduce to you the president, our president of the United States, President Barack Obama.

(APPLAUSE) PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA, UNITED STATES: Thank you so much. Please, be seated.

Well, good afternoon, and Saba, thank you for the wonderful introduction and for your example, your devotion to your faith and your education and your service to others.

You're an -- you're an inspiration. You're going to be a fantastic doctor. And I suspect, Saba, your parents are here because they wanted to see you, so -- where are -- where are Saba's parents? There you go. Yes give...

(APPLAUSE)

... good job, Mom. She did great, didn't she? She was terrific.

To everyone here at the Islamic Society of Baltimore, thank you for welcoming me here today. I want to thank Muslim-American leaders from across this city and this state and some who traveled even from out of state to be here.

I want to recognize Congressman John Sarbanes who is here...

(APPLAUSE)

... as well as two other great leaders in Congress and proud Muslim-Americans, Congressman Keith Ellison from the great state of Minnesota and Congressman Andre Carson from the great state of Indiana.

(APPLAUSE)

This mosque, like so many in our country, is an all-American story. You've been part of this city for nearly half a century. You served thousands of families, some who've lived here for decades, as well as immigrants from many countries who've worked to become proud American citizens.

Now, a lot of Americans have never visited a mosque, and to the folks watching this today who haven't, think of your own church or synagogue or temple and a mosque like this will be very familiar. This is where families come to worship and express their love for God and for each other.

There's a school where teachers open young minds, kids play baseball and football and basketball, boys and girls. I hear they're pretty good. Cub Scouts, Girl Scouts meet and recite the pledge of allegiance here. With interfaith dialogues, you build bridges of understanding with other faith communities, Christians and Jews. There's a health clinic that serves the needy regardless of their faith. And members of this community are out in the broader community working for social justice and urban development.

As voters, you come here to meet candidates. As one of your members said, just look at the way we live, we are true Americans. So the first thing I want to say is two words that Muslim-Americans don't hear often enough, and that is thank you. Thank you for serving your community. Thank you for lifting up the lives of your neighbors and for helping keep us strong and united as one American family.

(APPLAUSE)

We are -- we are grateful for that. Now, this brings me to the other reason I wanted to come here today.

I know that in Muslim communities across our country this is a time of concern and, frankly, a time of some fear. Like all Americans, you're worried about the threat of terrorism, but on top of that, as Muslim-Americans, you also have another concern, and that is your entire community so often is targeted or blamed for the violent acts of the very few.

Now, the Muslim-American community remains relatively small -- several million people -- in this country, and as a result, most Americans don't necessarily know or at least don't know that they know a Muslim personally, and as a result, many only hear about Muslims and Islam from the news after an act of terrorism or in distorted media portrayals in TV or film, all of which gives this hugely distorted impression.

And since 9/11, but more recently since the attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, you've seen too often people conflating the horrific acts of terrorism with the beliefs of an entire faith. And, of course, recently we've heard inexcusable political rhetoric against Muslim-Americans that has no place in our country. No surprise, then, that threats and harassment of Muslim-Americans have surged.

Here at this mosque twice last year, threats were made against your children. Around the country, women wearing the hijab, just like Saba, have been targeted. We've seen children bullied. We've seen mosques vandalized. Sikh-Americans and others who are perceived to be Muslims have been targeted as well.

I just had a chance to meet with some extraordinary Muslim-Americans from across the country who are doing all sorts of work. Some of them are doctors. Some of them are community leaders, religious leaders. All of them were doing extraordinary work, not just in the Muslim community, but in the American community. And they're proud of their work in business and education and -- on behalf of social justice and the environment and education. I should point out they were all much younger than me...

(LAUGHTER)

Which is happening more frequently these days. And -- and you couldn't help but be inspired hearing about the extraordinary work that they're doing. But you also could not help but be heartbroken to hear their worries and their anxieties.

Some of them are parents and they talked about how their children were asking are we going to be forced out of the country? Are we going to be rounded up? Why do people treat us like that? Conversations that you shouldn't have to have with children. Not in this country. Not in this moment.

And that's an anxiety echoed in letters I get from Muslim Americans around the country. I've had people write to me and say, "I feel like I'm a second-class citizen." I've had mothers write and say, "My heart cries every night thinking about how our daughter might be treated at school." Girl from Ohio, 13 years-old told me, "I'm scared." A girl from Texas signed her letter, a confused 14-year-old trying to find her place in the world.

These are children just like mine, and the notion they would be filled with doubt and questioning their place in this great country of ours, at a time when they've got enough to worry about, it's hard being a teenager already. That's -- that's not who we are. We're one American family and when any part of our family starts to feel separate or second-class or targeted, it tears at the very fabric of our nation.

(APPLAUSE)

It's a challenge to our values and that means we have much work to do. We've got to tackle this head-on and we have to be honest and clear about it and we have to speak out. This is a moment when as Americans, we have to truly listen to each other and learn from each other. And I believe it has to begin with a common understanding of some basic facts. And I express these facts, although it may be obvious to many of the people in this -- in this place, because unfortunately, it's not facts that are communicated on a regular basis through our media.

So let's start with this fact. For more than 1,000 years, people have been drawn to Islam's message of peace. And the very word itself Islam comes from salam, peace. The stand greetings is Assalamu- alaikum, peace be upon you. And like so many faiths, Islam is rooted in a commitment to compassion and mercy and justice and charity. Whoever wants to enter paradise, the Prophet Muhammad taught, let him treat people the way he would love to be treated.

(APPLAUSE)

And for Christians like myself, I'm assuming that sounds familiar.

(LAUGHTER)

The world's 1.6 billion Muslims are as diverse as humanity itself. They are Arabs and Africans, they're from Latin America to Southeast Asia, Brazilians, Nigerians, Bangladeshis, Indonesians. They are white and brown and black. There's a large African American Muslim community.

Diversity is represented here today. A 14-year-old boy in Texas who is Muslim spoke for many when he wrote to me and said, "We just want to live in peace."

Here's another fact. Islam has always been part of America. Starting in Colonial times, many of the slaves brought here from Africa were Muslim. And even in their bondage, some kept their faith alive. A few even won their freedom and became known to many Americans.

And when enshrining the freedom of religion in our Constitution and our Bill of Rights, our founders meant what they said when they said it applied to all religions. You know, back then Muslims were often called Mohammedans. And Thomas Jefferson explained that the Virginia Statute for Religions Freedom he wrote was designed to protect all faith. And I'm quoting Thomas Jefferson now, "The Jew and the gentile, the Christian and the Mohammedan."

(APPLAUSE)

Jefferson and John Adams had their own copies of the Koran. Benjamin Franklin wrote that, "even if the Mufti of Constantinople were to send a missionary to preach to us, he would find a pulpit at this service."

(APPLAUSE)

So -- so this is not a new thing. Generations of Muslim Americans helped to build our nation. They were part of the flow of immigrants who became farmers and merchants. They built America's first mosque, surprisingly enough, in North Dakota. America's oldest surviving mosque is in Iowa. The first Islamic Center in New York City was built in the 1890s.

Muslim Americans worked on Henry Ford's assembly line cranking out cars. Muslim American -- a Muslim American designed the skyscrapers of Chicago. In 1957, when dedicating the Islamic Center in Washington, D.C., President Eisenhower said, "I should like to assure you, my Islamic friends, that under the American Constitution and in American hearts, this place of worship is just as welcome as any other religion."

(APPLAUSE)

And perhaps the most pertinent back, Muslim Americans enrich our lives today in every way. They're our neighbors. They're teachers who inspire out children, the doctors who trust us with our health, future doctors like Saba. They're scientists who win Nobel Prizes; young entrepreneurs who are creating new technologies that we use all the time. They're the sports heroes we cheer for, like Muhammad Ali and Kareem Abdul Jabar; Akimo Ajuwan (ph). And by the way, when Team USA marches into the next Olympics, one of the Americans waving the red, white and blue will be a fencing champion wearing her hijab.

(APPLAUSE)

Ibtihaj Muhammad, who is here today, stand up. Come on. Let me...

(APPLAUSE)

I told her to bring home the gold. (LAUGHTER)

Not to put any pressure on you.

(LAUGHTER)

Muslim Americans keep us safe. They're our police and our firefighters. They're in homeland security, in our intelligence community. They serve honorably in our armed forces, meaning they fight and bleed and die for our freedom. Some rest in Arlington National Cemetery.

(APPLAUSE)

So, Muslim Americans are some of the most resilient and patriotic Americans you'll ever meet. We're honored to have some of our proud Muslim American servicemembers here today. Please stand, if you're here, so we can thank you for your service.

(APPLAUSE)

So part of the reason I want to lay out these facts is because in the discussions that I was having with these incredibly accomplished young people, you know, they were pointing out that so often they felt invisible. And part of what we have to do is to lift up the contributions of the Muslim-American community, not when there's a problem, but all the time.

Our television shows should have some Muslim characters that are unrelated to national security.

(APPLAUSE)

All right. Because -- it's not that hard to do.

(LAUGHTER)

Now, there was a time when there were no black people on television. And you can tell good stories, while still representing the reality of our communities.

Now, we do have another fact that we have to acknowledge. Even as the overwhelming majority -- and I repeat, the overwhelming majority of the world's Muslims embrace Islam as a source of peace, it is undeniable that a small fraction of Muslims propagate a perverted interpretation of Islam.

This is the truth. Groups like Al Qaida and ISIL, they're not the first extremists in history to misuse God's name. We've seen it before across faiths. But right now, there is an organized extremist element that draws selectively from Islamic text, twist them in an attempt to justify their killing and their terror.

They combine it with false claims that America and the West are at war with Islam. And this warped thinking that has found adherence around the world, including as we saw in Boston, Chattanooga and San Bernardino, is real. It's there. And it creates tensions and pressure that disproportionately burden the overwhelming majority of law-abiding Muslim citizens.

The question then is, how do we move forward together? How do we keep our country strong and united? How do we defend ourselves against organizations that are bent on killing innocents? And it can't be the work of any one faith alone. It can't be just a burden on the Muslim community, although the Muslim community has to play a role.

We all have responsibilities. So, with the time I have left, I just want to suggest a few principles that I believe can guide us.

First, at a time when others are trying to divide us along lines of religion or sect, we have to reaffirm that most fundamental of truths -- we are all God's children. We're all born equal, with inherent dignity.

And so often, we focus on our outward differences and we forget how much we share. Christians, Jews, Muslims, we're all, under our faiths descendants of Abraham. So, mere tolerance of different religions is not enough. Our faith summon us to embrace our common humanity.

"Oh, mankind," the Koran teaches, "We have made you peoples and tribes that you may know one another."

(APPLAUSE)

So, all of us have the task of expressing our religious faith in a way that seeks to build bridges rather than to divide.

Second, as Americans, we have to stay true to our core values and that includes freedom of religion for all faiths. I already mentioned our founders, like Jefferson knew that religious liberty is essential not only to protect religion, but because religion helps strengthen our nation. If it is free, if it is not an extension of the state.

Part of what has happened in the Middle East, and in North Africa and other places where we see sectarian violence is religion being a tool for another agenda -- for power, for control.

Freedom of religion helps prevent that, both ways. Protects religious faith, protects the state from -- or those who want to take over the state from using religious animosity as a tool for their own ends.

That doesn't mean that those of us with religious faith should not be involved, we have to be active citizenry. But we have to respect the fact that we have freedom of religion. Remember, many preachers and pastors fought to abolish the evil of slavery. People of faith advocated to improve conditions for workers and ban child labor. Dr. King was joined by people of many faiths challenging us to live up to our ideals. And that civil activism, that civic participation that's the essence of our democracy, it is enhanced by freedom of religion. Now, we have to acknowledge that there have been times where we have fallen short of our ideals. By the way, Thomas Jefferson's opponents tried to stir things up by suggesting he was a Muslim, so I was not the first ...

(LAUGHTER)

No, it's true. It's true. Look it up. I'm in good company. But it -- but it hasn't just been attacks of that sort that have been used. Mormon communities have been attacked throughout our history, Catholics, including, most prominently, JFK, John F. Kennedy, when he ran for president was accused of being disloyal. There was a suggestion that he would be taking orders from the pope as opposed to upholding his constitutional duties.

Anti-Semitism in this country has a sad and long history, and Jews were excluded routinely from colleges and professions and from public office. And so if we're serious about freedom of religion -- and I'm speaking now to my fellow Christians who remain the majority in this country -- we have to understand attack on one faith is attack on all our faiths.

(APPLAUSE)

And when any religious group is targeted, we all have a responsibility to speak up and we have to reject politics that seeks to manipulate prejudice or bias and targets people because of religion.

We've got to make sure the hate crimes are punished and that the civil rights of all Americans are upheld. (APPLAUSE)

And just as faith leaders, including Muslims, must speak out when Christians are persecuted around the world ...

(APPLAUSE)

... or when Anti-Semitism is on the rise. Because the fact is that there are Christians who are targeted now in the Middle East, despite having been there for centuries, and there are Jews who've lived in places like France for centuries who now feel obliged to leave because they feel themselves under assault, sometimes by Muslims. We have to be consistent in condemning hateful rhetoric and violence against everyone, and that includes against Muslims here in the United States of America.

(APPLAUSE)

So none of us can be silent, we can't be bystanders to bigotry. And together, we've got to show that America truly protects all faiths. Which brings me to my next point.

As we protect our country from terrorism, we should not reinforce the ideas and the rhetoric of the terrorists themselves. I often hear it said that we need more clarity in this fight, and the suggestion is somehow that if I would simply say these are all Islamic terrorists, then we would actually have solved the problem by now, apparently.

(LAUGHTER)

Well, I agree. We actually do need moral clarity. Let's have some moral clarity. Groups like...

(APPLAUSE)

Groups like ISIL are desperate for legitimacy. They try to portray themselves as religious leaders and holy warriors who speak for Islam. I refuse to give them legitimacy. We must never give them that legitimacy.

(APPLAUSE)

They're not -- they're not defending Islam. They're not defending Muslims. The vast majority of the people they kill are innocent Muslim men, women and children.

(APPLAUSE)

And by the way, the notion that America's at war with Islam ignores the fact that the world's religions are a part of who we are. We're not -- we can't be at war with any other religion because the world's religions are a part of the very fabric of the United States, our national character.

(APPLAUSE)

So the -- the best way for us to fight terrorism is to deny these organizations legitimacy and to show that here in the United States of America, we do not suppress Islam. We celebrate and lift up the success of Muslim Americans. That's how we show the lie that they're trying to propagate. We shouldn't play into terrorist propaganda.

And we can't suggest that Islam itself is -- is at the root of the problem. That betrays our values. It alienates Muslim Americans, it's hurtful to those kids who are trying to go to school and our members of the boy scouts and are thinking about joining our military. That kind of mindset helps our enemies. It helps our enemies recruit. It makes us all less safe. So let's be clear about that.

Now, finally, just as all Americans have responsibility to reject discrimination, I've said this before, Muslims around the world have a responsibility to reject extremist ideologies that are trying to penetrate within Muslim communities. Here at this mosque and across our country and around the world, Muslim leaders are roundly (ph) and repeatedly and consistently condemning terrorism. And around the globe, Muslims who've dared to speak out have been targeted and even killed. So those voices are there. We just have to amplify them more.

(APPLAUSE)

And in -- you know, it was interesting in the discussion I had before I came out. Some people said why is there always a burden on us when a young man in Charleston shoots African-Americans in a church? There's not an expectation that every white person in America suddenly is explaining that they're not racist. They can -- everybody is assumed to be horrified by that act. And I recognize that sometimes that doesn't feel fair.

But part of the answer is to make sure that the Muslim community in all of its variety, in every -- all the good works it's doing, in all the talent that's on display, that it's out there, visible on a consistent basis, not just at at a certain moment.