By Louis Chan
AsAmNews National Correspondent
Every respectable journalist in the country knows that President Obama is Christian.
Most educated voters also know that.
But facts be damned. This hasn’t stopped opponents of President Obama to spread falsehoods that he is Muslim.
According to the Washington Post, recent polls show 45 percent of Republicans and 29 percent of the American public mistakenly believe the President is Muslim.
Add that to the backdrop of Islamphobia present in the Presidential race and you have a delicate political situation for the President.
On Saturday, the President announced he would be making a visit on Wednesday to the Islamic Society of Baltimore,, his first such visit in the U.S. during his presidency.
It took former President George W Bush just six days after the 9/11 attacks to visit the Islamic Cultural Center of Washington and to emphasize that Islam did not equate to terrorism.
The President’s visit comes at the request of Islamic leaders a month ago.
President Obama is taking a significant step in making this visit.
It’s important for the President of the free world to stand up against religious bigotry. While he has spoken out against it, this will be his most visible and most important gesture to date.
This scheduled visit should have happened long ago. The fact that it took this long should not be dismissed, but it is never too late to do something that’s right. The Presidential race has only heated up the political rhetoric. This can not be tolerated by anyone–certainly not the President of the United States.
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