Last week, Barack Obama, the US president, communicated his support for the building of a mosque two blocks away from Ground Zero in New York, saying: "Muslims have the same right to practice their religion as everyone else in this country." This seemed harmless enough until he found out that over two-thirds of the US disagreed with him. Chastened, Obama went off-message to control the political damage, saying: "I was not commenting and I will not comment on the wisdom of making the decision to put a mosque." On this episode of Inside Story we ask: How much of an impact are upcoming elections having on Obama and are Muslims in the US being treated fairly?