WASHINGTON, Sept 12, (Agencies): President Barack Obama made an impassioned plea for religious tolerance recently, saying the United States is not at war with Islam, as he sought to quell signs of anti-Muslim sentiment at home that have raised tensions overseas.
Obama appealed to Americans for unity as passions simmered over a previously obscure Florida Christian pastor’s threat to burn copies of the Quran and plans to build an Islamic cultural center and mosque near the site of the fallen World Trade Center towers.
The pastor later backed down on his threat.
The twin controversies have threatened to undermine Obama’s efforts to repair US ties with the Muslim world, which he formally launched in a Cairo speech last year.
“We have to make sure that we don’t start turning on each other,” Obama told a news conference. “And I will do everything that I can as long as I’m president of the United States to remind the American people that we are one nation, under God. And we may call that God different names, but we remain one nation.”
Obama also said that he “relies heavily on my Christian faith.” Recent opinion polls have shown many Americans falsely believe Obama is a Muslim.
“We’ve got millions of Muslim Americans, our fellow citizens, in this country,” Obama said.
“They’re going to school with our kids. They’re our neighbors. They’re our friends. They’re our co-workers. And, you know, when we start acting as if their religion is somehow offensive, what are we saying to them?”
Demonstrations
Thousands of people took to the streets across Afghanistan on Friday, some threatening to attack US bases. One protester was shot dead and several were wounded outside a German-run NATO base in northeast Afghanistan. Demonstrations later spread to the capital, Kabul, and at least four other provinces.
Expressing hope Jones would refrain from carrying out his threat, Obama said that burning Qurans would violate American values, cause “profound damage” to the United States worldwide and endanger US troops in places like Afghanistan and Iraq.
He said it would also be a recruiting tool for al Qaeda, the authors of the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States.
“We are not at war against Islam,” Obama said. “We’re at war against terrorist organizations that have distorted Islam or falsely used the banner of Islam to engage in their destructive acts.”
Offering rare praise to former president George W. Bush, Obama said he admired how his predecessor made clear in the aftermath of the Sept 11 attacks that “we were at war with terrorists and murderers who had perverted Islam.”
Meanwhile, Obama insisted that the US economy is digging itself out of the deepest recession in decades but conceded that “progress has been painfully slow” and many voters in November’s elections may blame him.
Facing a rising jobless rate, Obama told a White House news conference: “For all the progress we’ve made, we’re not there yet. And that means the people are frustrated and that means people are angry.”
“And since I’m the president and Democrats have controlled the House and the Senate, it’s understandable that people are saying, you know, ‘What have you done?”’
Frustration
The president, who also is the leader of the Democratic Party, spent much of his appearance before cameras on the defensive, underscoring his frustration with being unable to convince the public that his economic fixes are working.
At his first formal session with reporters since May, one that lasted nearly an hour and 20 minutes, Obama also appealed to Americans to stand by America’s long heritage of religious tolerance.
Obama accused Republicans recently of holding the middle class hostage as he pushed new ideas to stimulate the sluggish US economy and try to reverse Democrats’ grim election prospects.
Heating up the rhetoric with less than two months until congressional elections on Nov 2, Obama zeroed in on the Republican call for the government to extend Bush-era tax cuts for both the middle class and wealthier Americans.
Obama said he was willing to sign a bill this month to extend tax relief for the middle class but repeated that the country could not afford to keep tax rates low for the wealthy, which would cost an estimated $700 billion over 10 years.
He said Republicans were punishing the middle class and delaying the US economic recovery to deliver tax breaks to millionaires and billionaires.
“Why hold the middle class hostage in order to do something that most economists don’t think make sense?” Obama said.
The Republican leader in the House of Representatives, John Boehner, swiftly dismissed Obama’s criticism.
“Half-hearted proposals and full-throated political attacks won’t end the uncertainty that is keeping small businesses from creating jobs,” Boehner said in a statement as Obama spoke.