In two seperate incidents, involving two different volunteers, Shimaa Abdelfadeel and Hebba Aref were denied seating behind Barack Obama because their headscarves would identify them as Muslim and would appear on camera.
Abdelfadeel was told by a volunteer that "We're not letting anyone with anything on their heads like baseballs or scarves sit behind the stage, It has nothing to do with your religion!" However, photo and video coverage of the event reveal men wearing hats visible in the section behind the podium.
Abdelfadeel, an Obama supporter, waited in line for several hours outside the Joe Lewis Arena, in order to hear the candidate speak. She was attending the event with two Non-Muslim friends. In the hallway approaching the arena, her friends, who were a few steps ahead of her, were approached by the Obama volunteer who asked them if they would like to sit in the special section behind the candidate.
When told that Abdelfadeel was with them, the volunteer explained that she would have to remove the headscarf or not be seated in the section. The three friends declined the offer.
Aref, a Bloomfield Hills lawyer, was also with a group of friends, not dressed as traditional Muslims. A volunteer approached those friends making the same offer to be seated behind the candidate. When told that Aref was dressed as a Muslim, the offer was withdrawn.
In their case, the volunteer made it clear that the decision was entirely political.
That incident began when the volunteer asked Aref's friend Ali Koussan and two other friends, Aref's brother Sharif and another young lawyer, Brandon Edward Miller, whether they would like to sit behind the stage. The three young men said they would, but mentioned they were with friends.
There is diversity, and then there is diversity!
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.
Hope and Change -- or Democrat politics as usual?
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.
Koussan expressed his disappointment with the candidate. "He was the one candidate who you would expect to stand up for something like that – and behind the scenes you have something completely contrary to what he was running on," he said.
A campaign spokesman, Emmett Beliveau called Aref to apologize. The Obama campaign has tried to make it clear that the volunteers were acting on their own, and did not represent the attitudes of the campaign or the candidate.
“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,” said Obama spokesman Bill Burton. “We sincerely apologize for the behavior of these volunteers.”
From the laws concerning sexual harassment as well.
It seems what is good for the public isn't so good for them.
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Magna est veritas, et praevalet.