President seeks to rekindle Sept. 11 unity

On the eve of the ninth anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, President Obama expressed concern Friday that a surge of anti-Muslim sentiment throughout the country may reflect that the nation is starting to misplace blame for the attacks.

During this morning's news conference, he stayed close to his talking points when making his pitch to Republicans to embrace his economic plan and to voters to stick with the Democrats in the midterm elections.

But when he made his remarks about growing tensions about the Muslim community, the president was impassioned.

Obama even praised former President George W. Bush to make his point, noting that Bush made clear after the attacks that the United States was not at war with Islam but with "terrorists and murderers who had perverted" the religion.

"I was so proud of the country rallying around that idea, that notion: That we are not going to be divided by religion, we're not going to be divided by ethnicity," Obama said. "We have to make sure that we don't start turning on each other."

Distrust of Muslims has come into sharp focus in the debate about a plan to build an Islamic center near ground zero in New York, which has coincided with a threat by a Christian pastor in Florida to burn a pile of Korans on Sept. 11 to protest construction of that center.

A Washington Post-ABC News poll published earlier this week showed 49 percent of Americans had a generally unfavorable view of Islam.

Obama's defense of the prospective Cordoba House complex is politically risky. Throughout his presidency, he's been dogged by whispers that he is a Muslim, and a recent Pew Research Center poll showed that 18 percent of Americans believe Obama is a Muslim.

Obama recognized the sensitivity of building the Islamic center so close to ground zero. But he also made the case that U.S. values would be trampled on if the Muslims were thwarted from building on the plot.

"This country stands for the proposition that all men and women are created equal, that they have certain inalienable rights; one of those inalienable rights is to practice their religion freely," Obama said. "What that means is that if you could build a church on a site, you could build a synagogue on a site; if you could build a Hindu temple on a site, then you should be able to build a mosque on the site."

The president also attempted to frame his concerns about anti-Muslim sentiment in national security terms, making the case that the United States needs to continue to engage the Muslim world as the nation fights wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and attempts to help negotiate a peace accord between Israelis and Palestinians. He pointed out that many of the U.S. troops fighting in Afghanistan are Muslims.

"They're our neighbors. They're our friends. They're our co-workers," Obama said. "And, you know, when we start acting as if their religion is somehow offensive, what are we saying to them?"