WASHINGTON (AFP) - Two Muslims at a Barack Obama rally were barred from sitting behind the podium as campaign volunteers sought to prevent their headscarves appearing in images with the candidate, reports said Wednesday.
In two separate incidents Monday at a rally in Detroit, Michigan -- which boasts one of the largest Muslim communities in the United States -- women wearing headscarves were told they could not sit in the section that forms the visual backdrop behind Obama, Washington-based Politico.com reported.
"I was coming to support him, and I felt like I was discriminated against by the very person who was supposed to be bringing this change," Hebba Aref, a 25-year-old lawyer, told the website.
"The message that I thought was delivered to us was that they do not want him associated with Muslims or Muslim supporters," Aref said.
A friend accompanying Aref said a campaign volunteer had specifically cited "the political climate" as an explanation.
The other woman, Shimaa Abdelfadeel, said she was told no one with any head coverings, including baseball caps and scarves, could sit behind the stage, and that the rule was not an attack on her religion.
The Obama campaign reportedly apologized to the women.
"This is of course not the policy of the campaign. It is offensive and counter to Obama's commitment to bring Americans together and simply not the kind of campaign we run," Obama spokesman Bill Burton was quoted as saying.
"We sincerely apologize for the behavior of these volunteers."
Obama, who has struggled to suppress a viral rumor that he is Muslim, has billed himself in the 2008 presidential race as the candidate of change and inclusion who can transcend identity politics.
But his vigorous denials that he is Muslim has been known to frustrate some followers of Islam because of the implication that there is something wrong with the religion.
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