Is Obama Losing His Muslim Base?

Barring those two headscarf-clad women from the podium in Detroit seems to be hurting Obama's numbers among Muslims:

In Democratic primaries this year the overwhelming majority of Muslim Americans voted for a man who has, throughout the campaign, vigorously knocked down rumors that he is a Muslim.

But support for Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., during the primaries doesn't mean the Democrat has a free pass from the Muslim American community.

Last week's incident at an Obama rally in Michigan put some added strain on Obama's support in the Muslim American community. A campaign volunteer reportedly barred two Muslim American women from appearing in camera-range behind Obama's podium after they refused the campaign representative's request to remove their headscarves. After the incident received media attention, Obama called the women personally to apologize. But the hurt still lingers for some Muslim Americans.

"I was quite disappointed. The Obama campaign to me, represents a change from traditional politics and embodies an America which supersedes discrimination and racism. This incident is in stark contradiction to that notion," said Lydia Habhab, a 23-year-old Arab Muslim-American graduate student and Dearborn, Michigan native.

"For a candidate who is talking about change, and who is a minority … who is talking about giving hope to everyone, it was very offensive to me as a Muslim woman who wears a headscarf," said Tuqa Nusairat, a 24-year-old Arab Muslim-American who is a Virginia native and graduate student.

Although Obama personally called the girls wearing hijab to apologize, it is still disheartening to think that the level of Islamophobia in his campaign and within America is so high, that having women wearing hijab within a camera shot away from Obama was even an issue, especially within one of the most highly populated Muslim areas in the country," said Habhab.

This whole thing strikes me as pretty funny. If the Muslims can't support a guy whose middle name is "Hussein", where are they going to go?