Muslim woman says Obama campaign kept her off-camera

A young Muslim woman said Wednesday that she was asked not to sit in view of television cameras by an Obama campaign volunteer at Monday’s rally because she was wearing a traditional Muslim head scarf called a hijab.

Sen. Barack Obama’s campaign apologized for two volunteers’ refusals to allow Hebba Aref and another woman, Shimaa Abdelfadeel, to sit behind the presumed Democratic nominee at Detroit’s Joe Louis Arena on Monday due to concerns that the appearance of the hijab at the rally would stir more controversy.

“This is of course not the policy of the campaign,” spokesman Bill Burton told Politico.com. “We sincerely apologize for the behavior of these volunteers.”

Since Obama began his presidential campaign, his religion has been questioned repeatedly as some critics have made false speculations that he is Muslim.

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Aref said a volunteer told her brother that he could not invite her to sit behind Obama due to “a sensitive political climate.”

But the Muslim women remain supporters of Obama and intend to vote for him. “We don’t have any negative agenda,” Aref said.

“Although we welcome the Obama campaign’s apology, we are extremely concerned about the level of Islamophobia in our society that would prompt other minorities to view Muslim supporters as potential liabilities,” the Michigan office of the Council on American Islamic Relations said in a statement released Wednesday. The council urged Obama to personally apologize to the two women.

Campaigns often select who sits behind a candidate at highly publicized events in order to control how he is seen in photographs and videos, though Obama’s campaign officials denied that their selection policy targets Muslim women wearing hijabs, which are part of the Muslim faith and symbolize modesty.