Obama May Nix Shrine Visit Over Headgear Rule
President Barack Obama may cancel a planned visit to a Sikh shrine in India because advisers feel the head covering he would be required to wear might fuel chatter that he is a secret Muslim.
Obama is scheduled to arrive in India on Nov. 6, at the invitation of Manmohan Singh, India’s first Sikh prime minister.
His original itinerary reportedly included a visit to the Golden Temple in the northern city of Amritsar, the Sikhs’ holiest site.
“Obama had planned to see the temple when he traveled to India next month but his advisers are said to have ruled out the headscarf option, fearing that in some people’s minds, it would connect him with militant Islamism,” Britain’s The Times reported.
Singh had told Obama in a letter that a visit to the Golden Temple would demonstrate “America’s respect for all faiths and traditions,” according to CNSNews.
The world’s 25 million Sikhs are followers of a monotheistic religion that dates back to the 15th century in India. They are sometimes mistaken for Muslims.
Sikh men wear turbans, and non-Sikh visitors to the temple are required to cover their heads. Temple guardians told The Times no exception to the head covering rule would be made for Obama.
“We are not making any special preparations for him, since everybody is equal in the eyes of God,” said S. Ram Singh, a member of the committee that manages the temple. “It is our tradition to cover the head when you are in [the temple] and even he will have to cover his head.”
A temple priest said a baseball cap would not suffice, The Times noted.
Asked about the reported cancellation of the shrine visit, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs did not respond directly, but said: “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.”
Joseph K. Grieboski, founder and chairman of the Washington, D.C.-based Institute on Religion and Public Policy, expressed disappointment over the reported canceling of the temple visit.
He said in a statement: “This could have been a unique and historic opportunity for the president to stand in the holiest shrine of an often-discriminated religious minority and to speak for the rights of all minorities around the globe.”
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