Barack Obama

Does President Obama Fear Hats? A Non-Denial.

By Michael Scherer | @michaelscherer | October 21, 2010 | +

Yesterday, several news outlets reported that White House aides had scrapped a planned presidential tour of the Golden Temple in Amritsar, India, the spiritual center of the Sikh religion. The reason for avoiding the temple, according to unnamed sources: Head covering. As the New York Times explained, “[T]he plan appears to have foundered on the thorny question of how Mr. Obama would cover his head, as Sikh tradition requires, while visiting the temple.” (It was previously reported, in India, that Obama would likely visit the shrine.)

Obama, according to unnamed sources, did not want to stoke the false impression among many of his constituents that he is a Muslim, even though the Sikh religion is distinct from Islam. I was skeptical of the reports when I read them, given the scant sourcing, so I emailed two officials at the White House. I did not hear back. But on Wednesday, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs was asked about the articles aboard Air Force One.

Q    Can you address some of the reports that the President has decided, or the White House has decided not to send the President to the Golden Temple because of concerns about him having to wear a headscarf?

MR. GIBBS:  We pick sites on foreign trips based on what the President wants to accomplish.  We’ve not finalized the schedule for Asia, including India, yet.  We hope to do that over the course of the next week. We send advance people to many places in each country before we make decisions, in consultation with the host country, in this case the Indian government, about where to go.

Look, it’s a big country.  We’d love to spend a lot more than the three allotted days that we have in India.  This trip will focus our business on Mumbai and — in the cities of Mumbai and New Delhi.  But we pick where we’re going to go on trips based on what we hope to accomplish.

This is what we call a classic non-denial. He seems to leave open the possibility of a visit to the Golden Temple, but he does not address whether or not there is White House concern about the president covering his head.

Related Topics: india, robert gibbs, Barack Obama, Uncategorized

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  • newfreedomblog

    More denial……….more lies. Despite Obama’s image problems. He still has done nothing to improve the radicals on his side who make false allegations, and simply LIE
    .

  • http://tragedydeferred.wordpress.com logicforbipeds

    I visited the Haji Ali Sufi mosque in Mumbai and just wore a bandanna over my head – maybe this is deemed too casual for the Golden Temple? Or perhaps this is a thornier, Indian politics issue that we’re not fully let on about – I’m guessing that might be the case.

  • Joe Bftsplk

    Please stay on top of this very important issue.

  • jsfox

    Improve the radicals on his side? So wait what you want is Obama to shut them up? You want him to abridge their rights to opinion? You know that whole free speech thing.

    Rusty what happened to your strong belief in the Constitution? Or is your belief in the Constitution based solely when it works for you not people who disagree with you.

    I think 99.9% of the crap the Tea Party spouts is utter BS, but they have every right to their BS.

  • newfreedomblog

    I am assuming you are actually reading what I have written, jsfox. I actually do not believe I have in anyway called for them to be as you say, “mprove the radicals on his side? So wait what you want is Obama to shut them up? You want him to abridge their rights to opinion? You know that whole free speech thing.”
    .
    You see my dear little liberal friend. Just standing up and voicing your concerns are one thing, but when you stand up and tell BOLD FACED LIES, people need to speak out about those lies and confront the liars.
    .
    They can spout out all the garbage rhetoric they want. I am merely pointing out the hypocrisy of what they are saying as well as pointing out their lies.
    .
    Your total diatribe is the usual liberal meme on this theme. Nothing but lies and garbage. Take a note out of your own book, jsfox. Begin to practice what you preach instead of merely regurgitating the talking points you are fed by your liberal friends.

  • allthingsinaname

    Don’t you find sort of sad when a President has to worry about it? Isn’t that the true story? That this country is so bigoted, so askew, so full of hatred, lies and self destruction that the President need to worry about looking Muslim.

  • jsfox

    Hmmm, here’s a thought. A lot of folks don’t think it’s a lie. A lot of people believe without any prompting from the NAACP that the Tea Party has some very strong and disturbing racists under tones. You don’t agree.

    Does this mean that the Tea Party folks are all racists absolutely not, but to deny that some probably are and are enraged because a black man is in the White House is to deny reality

    In a University of Washington study of ethnicity and race the results showed that the Tea Party is a white dominant force with racial attitudes that see blacks as lazy, unintelligent and distrustful. The hysterics of the The GOP’s Tea Party racism make it more of a white right wing band of dissenters who wish to suppress and target blacks, women, gays, taxpayers and the poor which is most of the demographics of the Democrats. The Wiser survey of 2010 examined many states about race after the first black history was elected in history.

    Quote: ” For instance, the Tea Party, the grassroots movement committed to reining in what they perceive as big government, and fiscal irresponsibility, also appear predisposed to intolerance. Approximately 45% of Whites either strongly or somewhat approve of the movement. Of those, only 35% believe Blacks to be hardworking, only 45 % believe Blacks are intelligent, and only 41% think that Blacks are trustworthy.

    Perceptions of Latinos aren’t much different. While 54% of White Tea Party supporters believe Latinos to be hardworking, only 44% think them intelligent, and even fewer, 42% of Tea Party supporters believe Latinos to be trustworthy. When it comes to gays and lesbians, White Tea Party supporters also hold negative attitudes. Only 36% think gay and lesbian couples should be allowed to adopt children, and just 17% are in favor of same-sex marriage.” See: University of Washington Survey 2010. on Race and Politics. (http://depts.washington.edu/uwiser/racepolitics.html)

    Now could this study be overstating the case? Absolutely. But what it points out is that racism does exist within the ranks of the Tea Party and that some are motivated more by their distrust of folks not like them then they are by “big government” or fiscal responsibility.

    If they were there would be equal anger directed at Republicans who have failed miserably at ever reigning in the government or reducing government spending.

  • newfreedomblog

    “After tediously combing through the crowd and over 250 photographs later, Ekins discovered, based on the signs, that the claims of rampant racism simply weren’t true. “Over 50 percent were about limited government and lower spending, and only about 6 percent were controversial in nature,” Ekins told Fox News.”

    .
    Read more: http://politics.blogs.foxnews.com/2010/10/18/new-study-debunks-myth-about-racist-tea-partiers#ixzz130jp21U4
    .
    I have been at all the Tea Party rallies in Washington DC. Are there some crackpots in the crowd, most certainly. Could there be a few, very few who may be racists? Most definitely.
    .
    Can you wall-paper the entire Tea Party movement as a “right-wing racist movement” as the NAACP has done, absolutely not.
    .

  • newfreedomblog

    What is so sad about the truth. He is a Muslim. Move on.

  • allthingsinaname

    There is no truth in you Rusty.

  • apr2563

    Michael, do you post these inane items just to rile up the hive? The WH press corps found this important enough to waste their “precious” question time?

  • liberalmeltdown

    Muslims consider Obama a Muslim around the world. It would send shockwaves across the globe to see Barry in a Sikh Scarf.

  • liberalmeltdown

    Funny, first time I have had a comment censored by Time, and it’s about hats. I guess the politically correct pinheads don’t like certain words. Can I have a list please?
    .
    My post was concerning the Egyptian Foreign Minister:

    “Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit said he had a one-on-one meeting with Obama, in which President Obama told him that he was still a Muslim, the son of a Muslim father, the stepson of Muslim stepfather, that his half brothers in Kenya are Muslims, and that he was sympathetic towards the Muslim agenda.”

    Whether Obama said it or not, it shows that Muslims in many parts of the world, including here, think that Barry is a Muslim. The Muslim law says that he is.

  • herby002

    liberal,

    Please, what is the link for your supposed quote?

    You wouldn’t be making up stuff again, would you?

  • liberalmeltdown

    Take the qoute, copy it and paste it in google, herby. That’s how you do it in the computer age. So you get results like:
    .
    http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atlas_shrugs/2010/06/-obama-tells-egyptian-foreign-minister-i-am-a-muslim-stealth-coup-on-the-white-house.ht
    .
    I certainly did not write Sharia Law. Which is (let me make this clear to you, this is not only a belief, but a law) if your father is a Muslim that makes you a Muslim.
    .
    You can also peruse this: http://www.islam101.com/sociology/inheritance.htm
    .
    Are you really that naive about all this, Herby?

  • apr2563

    Atlas shrugs. No wonder your posts are nuts.
    .
    Islam is a belief. You can either chose to believe or not. People, according to my religious upbringing have free will. I was born, baptized and confirmed a Catholic. I no longer believe in the Catholic church or its tenets. The Pope couldn’t force me to believe. Yet, I have been through all the rituals that would define me as Catholic. I’m sorry if you think religion is something that can’t be denied, ignored,or changed. I guess you don’t believe in conversion.

  • herby002

    liberal,

    Your atlasshrugged link does not work.

    The other link means… what?

    There is nothing there that backs up your supposed quote about Obama.

    Wanna try again?

  • herby002

    “Are you really that naive about all this, Herby?”

    Waiting for an answer to my previous question.

  • liberalmeltdown

    My reply to herby was to show how to use a computer, april. I simply posted the first link that had the quote.
    .
    For someone that cannot figure out what a career politician with a long record like Jerry Brown will do as Governor illustrates your naivety. And no, under Muslim law you don’t get to believe or not.
    .
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apostasy_in_Islam
    .
    Apostasy in Islam (Arabic: ارتداد, irtidād or ridda‎) is commonly defined in Islam as the rejection in word or deed of their former religion (apostasy) by a person who was previously a follower of Islam. The traditional Sunni schools of Islamic jurisprudence are unanimous in holding that apostasy by a male Muslim is punishable by death. They differ on whether to execute the apostate immediately or grant the apostate a temporary reprieve in order to allow him to repent and avoid the penalty. The schools also differ on whether a female apostate is to be killed, or only imprisoned until she re-embraces the faith.[1]

  • herby002

    9.4 – liberal,

    “My reply to herby was to show how to use a computer, april. I simply posted the first link that had the quote.”

    I know how to use a computer.
    I also know how to read:
    ” The webpage cannot be found” is what showed on my screen when I attempted to access YOUR LINK – which you attempted to show to prove your point.

    Now, when you try to prove your point with another, later, quote/link, your quote does not take into account other varieties of Islam. Please supply WORKABLE links that prove your point according to Shiite, Sufi, and of course Sunni.

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