Obama to Visit U.S. Mosque for First Time in Office.

President Obama will make his first visit to a mosque in the United States on Wednesday, traveling to a suburb of Baltimore to meet with Muslim leaders and to speak out against hostility and discrimination against Islam. The visit to the Islamic Society of Baltimore comes as anti-Muslim sentiment has surfaced in the Republican presidential primary campaign, notably with Donald J. Trump’s proposal after the terror attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, Calif., to bar Muslims from entering the United States. “I think the president is quite interested in making sure that we’re affirming the important role that Muslims play in our diverse American society and certainly affirming their right to worship God in a way that’s consistent with their heritage,” the White House spokesman Josh Earnest said. 

President Obama will make his first visit to a mosque in the United States on Wednesday, traveling to a suburb of Baltimore to meet with Muslim leaders and to speak out against hostility and discrimination against Islam.

The visit to the Islamic Society of Baltimore comes as anti-Muslim sentiment has surfaced in the Republican presidential primary campaign, notably with Donald J. Trump’s proposal after the terror attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, Calif., to bar Muslims from entering the United States.

“I think the president is quite interested in making sure that we’re affirming the important role that Muslims play in our diverse American society and certainly affirming their right to worship God in a way that’s consistent with their heritage,” the White House spokesman Josh Earnest said. “And they shouldn’t be subject to ridicule or targeting by anybody, let along somebody who aspires to lead our country.”

Mr. Obama, who visited a mosque in Jakarta, Indonesia, during a trip there in 2010, will conduct a round table with Muslim leaders before delivering what is certain to be a closely watched speech before a larger audience. He touched on his distress at anti-Muslim bigotry in his State of the Union address, saying: “When politicians insult Muslims, whether abroad or our fellow citizens, when a mosque is vandalized, or a kid called names, that doesn’t make us safer. That’s not telling it like it is. It’s just wrong. It diminishes us in the eyes of the world.”

Mr. Obama is not the first American president to try to stem a rise in anti-Muslim sentiment. President George W. Bush visited a Washington mosque after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and made repeated calls for tolerance.