Republican presidential candidate Florida Senator Marco Rubio stated that he would visit a mosque as president and blasted President Obama for promoting “this fiction that there’s widespread, systemic discrimination against Muslim-Americans” while Christian groups “are being discriminated against by the laws of this country” during Saturday’s GOP presidential debate on ABC.
Rubio, in response to a question on his criticism of President Obama’s mosque visit and whether he would visit one as president, said, “I would. But that’s not the issue, my problem with what he did, is he continues to put out this fiction that there’s widespread, systemic discrimination against Muslim-Americans. First of all, let’s recognize this, if you go to a national cemetery in this country, you will see Stars of Davids and crosses, but you’ll also see crescent moons. There are brave men and women, who happen to be Muslim-Americans, who are serving this country in uniform, and who have died in the service of this country, and we recognize that, and we honor that. But by the same token, we face a very significant threat of homegrown violent extremism. We need to have strong, positive relationships in the Islamic communities in this country, so they will identify and report this activity, especially mosques, for example, that are participating, not just in hate speech, but in inciting violence and in taking acts against us. And I do believe it is important also to recognize, you want to talk about religious discrimination in America, well, I don’t think Barack Obama’s being sued by any Islamic groups, but he is being sued by the Little Sisters of the Poor. We are facing this country — Christian groups, and groups that hold traditional values, who feel, and in fact are being discriminated against by the laws of this country, that try to force them to violate their conscience.”
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