9781422281161

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Islam and the West

I n February 2016, US President Barack Obama visited the Islamic Society of Baltimore because of what his administration per- ceived as an increase in anti- Muslim attitudes in the United States. Violence and discrimination against Muslims in the West had increased in response to recent terrorist attacks by Muslims in Paris and in San Bernardino, California. The negative attitudes toward Muslims was fueled by candidates who were competing in the American presidential primaries. Describing conversations with young Muslim parents whose chil- dren were worried that they would be removed from the country, Obama attempted to change what he felt were unfair beliefs about Muslims and terrorism, and said that people of all faiths should be accepted without bias into the United States. “Let me say as clearly as I can as president of the United States: you fit right here,” Obama told several thousand Muslims at the “I know that in Muslim communities across our country, this is a time of concern and, frankly, a time of some fear,” President Obama said in his 2016 speech at a Baltimore mosque. “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 com- munity so often is targeted or blamed for the violent acts of the very few.”

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