On Wednesday, President Obama visited the Islamic Society of Baltimore in his first trip to a US mosque as commander-in-chief.
Officially, the trip was “to celebrate the contributions Muslim Americans make to [America] and reaffirm the importance of religious freedom to our way of life.” But as we said on Monday, the visit was actually designed to counter the growing backlash against Islam in the US, where GOP hopeful Donald Trump has called for a ban on all Muslims entering the country.
We also said the following about what the likely fallout would be: “You can be sure that Obama's visit will end up in a GOP soundbite in the days and weeks ahead.”
Predictably, Trump was among the first to take a swipe at the President.
“Perhaps he feels comfortable there,” Trump said on Wednesday evening, a rather transparent allusion to rumors about Obama’s faith and birthplace. "We have a lot of problems in this country,” Trump continued. "There are a lot of places he can go, and he chose a mosque."
Yes he did, and below we bring you the pictures to prove it, images which we imagine won’t do a whole lot to change the minds of the 29% of Americans who still believe Obama is Muslim.
Allahu akbar?
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Here's Obama's full speech in which the President tells the crowd that "Islam has always been a part of America":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXRDocvDAK8