Senator Barack Obama’s presidential campaign has apologized for keeping Muslim women wearing headscarves out of a key shot at his Detroit event.

According to Politico’s Ben Smith, campaign volunteers told at least two Muslim women that they could not join friends in special spots behind the candidate unless they removed their religious headwear.

Friends of Hebba Aref recounted to Mr. Smith what happened when they were invited to sit behind the stage at Monday rally:

The men said the volunteer, a twenty-something African American woman in a green shirt, asked if their friends looked and were dressed like the young men, who were all light-skinned and wearing suits. Miller said yes, but mentioned that one of their friends was wearing a headscarf with her suit.



The volunteer “explained to me that because of the political climate and what’s going on in the world and what’s going on with Muslim Americans it’s not good for her to be seen on TV or associated with Obama,” said Koussan, who is a law student at Wayne State University. Both Koussan and Miller said they specifically recalled the volunteer citing the “political climate” in telling them they couldn’t sit behind Obama.

A volunteer told Shimaa Abdelfadeel, according to Mr. Smith’s report, that no headcoverings, be they baseball caps or religious pieces, were allowed to be worn behind the candidate.

The people standing behind the candidate – in full view of the camera – are almost never accidental, and candidates often speak a diverse, albeit clean-cut crowd. And given that Michigan is a center of Arab-American culture, it is unlikely that potential turnout by this group did not occur to Mr. Obama’s advance staff. However, Bill Burton, the campaign spokesman, said in a statement that keeping Muslims out of the background “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. We sincerely apologize for the behavior of these volunteers.”

Mr. Burton was also quick to point out that Muslims have been in the shot at previous Obama events. “This is obviously an anomaly, but we have apologized and are going to indeed work to ensure that this situation doesn’t happen again,” he added in an e-mail message, without elaborating on what specific measures would be taken.

Both Ms. Aref and Ms. Abdelfadeel have yet to return calls requesting comment.

The news comes at an awkward time for the Obama campaign, which has worked to portray him as post-racial. He has constantly had to deny rumors that he is Muslim (but pointing to his now-former church, and his spiritual mentor, the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., has not been particularly helpful either) and fight an underground smear campaign suggesting he has ties to terrorists. He has also been trying to assuage Jewish voters’ concerns without alienating those who sympathize more strongly with Palestinians in the Middle Eastern conflict. This advance snafu risks tipping the see-saw again.