In a historic visit, US President Barack Obama visited the mosque in Baltimore, Maryland, a few days ago. Of course, this made many Americans wonder as to why Obama would visit the mosque at the near end of his term and just before the presidential election, instead of doing so earlier in his two terms of eight years.

Obama should only hope that even his admirers would not think that Obama has made this visit to win votes for the Democratic party in the upcoming elections or to find a career for himself after his term ends.

His remarks on Muslims appear to be fair and will win a lot of friends for him not just amongst Muslims but also amongst people who are fair in judgements and bear no ill will towards any religion or community.

Obama has gone a step further to say that Sikh Americans are often the targets of threats and harassment as they are “perceived to be Muslims”. It is a fact that Obama has not been able to prevent such perceptions as the President for eight years.

The ground reality is that millions of Muslims in the world do not approve of the violent methods adopted by some extremist groups. Despite a vast number of Muslims being peaceful, an unfortunate impression is that Muslims indulge in violent terrorist activities.

Obama put the issue in proper perspective by clearly stating that while criticising any terrorist group, the religion to which the terrorists belong should not be criticised.

While reading these statements, many Indians who do not have a short memory cannot but recollect that during his last visit to India, Obama made some adverse comments about the so-called religious intolerance in India, even though only a microscopic minority of Indians indulge in hate talk. Obama should be grateful to millions of Indians who tolerated his statement when he talked about religious intolerance in India, as Indians know that religious intolerance in India is more of a media creation and a very isolated affair. Obviously, the tolerant Indians have a lesson or two to give to Obama.

— The reader is an Indian founder trustee of an NGO based in Chennai, India.