Walls, Islamophobia, Won’t Solve Problems: Obama Tells Graduates

Obama spoke of Donald Trump without using his name.

President Barack Obama delivers the commencement address at Rutgers University Sunday, 15 May 2016 in Piscataway, NJ. (Photo: AP)

US President Barack Obama on Sunday urged Rutgers college graduates to shun those who want to confront a rapidly changing world by building walls around the United States or by embracing ignorance, as he delivered a sharp and barely concealed critique of Donald Trump, without actually using his name.

Obama told the roughly 12,000 graduating students that the pace of change on the planet is accelerating, not subsiding and that recent history had proved that the toughest challenges cannot be solved in isolation.

A wall won’t stop that. The point is, to help ourselves, we’ve got to help others — not pull up the drawbridge and try to keep the world out.

<b>Obama on Trump building a wall between US and Mexico</b>

He also challenged the notion that Muslims should be banned from the United States, something Trump proposed in December.

Isolating or disparaging Muslims, suggesting that they should be treated differently when it comes to entering this country, that is not just a betrayal of our values. That’s not just a betrayal of who we are – it would alienate the very communities at home and abroad who are our most important partners in the fight against extremism.

<b>President Obama</b>

Some 50,000 students and their families packed High Point Solution Stadium for the ceremony, the first at Rutgers to involve a sitting president.

(With agency inputs.)