ROUGH CUT (NO REPORTER NARRATION)

STORY: Continuing a White House tradition, U.S. President Barack Obama hosted his fourth Iftar dinner on Friday (August 10) to celebrate Ramadan.

During the dinner Obama honored the victims of the Sikh temple shooting and declared an assault on religious faith "has no place in the United States of America."

"Tonight our prayers in particular are with our friends and fellow Americans of the Sikh community. We mourn those who were senselessly murdered and injured in their place of worship. And while we may never fully understand what motivates such hatred, such violence -- the perpetrators of such despicable acts must know that your twisted thinking is no match for the compassion and goodness and strength of our united American family. So tonight we declare with one voice that such violence has no place in the United States of America. The attacks of Americans of any faith is an attack on the freedom of all Americans. No American should ever have to fear for their safety in their place of worship and every American has the right to practice their faith both opening and freely and as they choose-- that is not just an American right it is a Universal human right and we will defend the religion here at home and around the world," Obama said.

A white supremacist gunman opened gunfire and killed six people at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin.

Federal authorities have said they are treating the attack as a possible act of domestic terrorism.

Turban-wearing Sikhs are often mistaken for Muslims in the United States.

The Sikh faith was founded in the Punjab area of India and Pakistan and has an estimated 500,000 or more adherents in the United States.