Jake Tapper has a report that President Obama will not be visiting the Sikh's Golden Temple on his India trip because, get this, he is afraid he will "look Muslim" on account of the Golden Temple's dress code (which requires that he cover his head). We have a very lame President:
On an upcoming trip to India, President Obama will skip visiting one of the country’s most sacred shrines out of fear that wearing the requisite headgear might make him appear Muslim, according to reports from the United States and India.
The New York Times, citing an unnamed American official involved in the trip’s planning, reports that the president will not stop at the Golden Temple, a Sikh holy site and one of the country’s most popular tourist attractions, because visitors typically wear headscarves, turbans or Muslim caps.
Obama was to visit the sprawling golden complex in Amritsar, "but the 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," wrote the Times.
"To come to golden temple he needs to cover his head," Dalmegh Singh, secretary of the committee that runs the temple told the paper. "That is our tradition. It is their problem to cover the head with a Christian hat or a Muslim cap."
I am hearing a George Carlin voice in my head saying, "In football you wear a helmet, in baseball you wear a cap!"
Still, President Obama? Sensitive much? You can't walk into a holy site without wondering how it will reflect on you? It's one of the few places in the world that's meant to remind you that there are greater things in this world than your fabulous self. Maybe that's the real problem.
As for the Obama = Muslim problem, come on. If the President had any confidence, this wouldn't be an issue. Laura Bush was able to travel the Middle East with her head covered. Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper visited the Golden Temple with his head covered. But, Obama would rather hide behind the supposed bigotry of his countrymen (led by his fellow Democrats who first raised the issue) than do his duty as a statesman.
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