Obama Dodges Muslim Photo Op

President Barack Obama may skip a planned visit to the Golden Temple in Amritsar on his trip to India next month because wearing the required head cover in the religious space could make him look like a Muslim.

The Golden Temple in Punjab is the holiest site for people of the Sikh faith. Sikh men, who keep their unshorn hair in turbans and have long beards, are often mistaken for Muslims in the West, and Indian media are reporting that the White House is concerned that Obama could face the same fate if he has to don a headscarf, as non-Sikh men generally do when entering the shrine.

Obama is a Christian, but some right-wing opponents have pushed the idea that he's a covert Muslim. Last month, a Time magazine poll found that 24 percent of Americans mistakenly believe the president is a Muslim.

The body that looks after Sikh affairs in India, the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee, is trying to come up with alternatives, such as Obama wearing a cap. "We are only concerned that one should cover his or her head as per the Sikh code of conduct," said Jathedar Avtar Singh Makkar, president of the SGPC.

In a popularly cited precedent, Britain's Queen Elizabeth wore a hat during a visit in 2007. Makkar said that while Sikhs cannot visit the temple wearing a cap or hat, there is no such restriction for non-Sikhs.

But there are different interpretations of how much leeway exists. "We have no problems if he wears a skull cap, the kind that Muslims wear to the mosque, or any other cap that is modified to something similar," said Giani Gurbachan Singh, head priest of the Golden Temple. "But we don't allow baseball caps or Army hats."

Makkar said on Tuesday that he was calling an "emergency meeting with other executive members" to see whether some compromise could be reached.

Indian sources are suggesting that it's already too late for that. Under the original schedule, Obama, who will begin a three-day visit to India in Mumbai on Nov. 6, was supposed to fly from there to Amritsar. But in the current version of the schedule, according to the Indian media, he will leave directly for New Delhi after Mumbai.

The White House will not confirm any cancellation, saying the president's schedule has not been released. "We haven't canceled anything because we haven't announced anything," a White House official told AOL News.

Noting that India is a vast country with several things to see, the official stressed that Obama's aides had scouted several places for the three-day visit and some had been ruled out for different reasons.

But Indian papers, citing officials in New Delhi, have reported that a White House advance team has already ruled out Obama wearing a headscarf due to political sensitivities in the U.S. These concerns were communicated to the Indian authorities

An American official reportedly explained at one meeting that Obama has to remind Americans every day that he should not be mistaken for a Muslim just because his middle name is Hussein, according to The Indian Express.

The apparent cancellation has disappointed the Sikh community, especially the Sikh-Americans settled in the U.S.

"President Obama's visit would send a very significant message of mutual respect and harmony to this region of the world," Rajwant Singh, national chairman of the Sikh Council on Religion and Education, told the Indo-Asian News Service. "Once again, this is now a moral issue and the president has to take a stand. May God bless him to make the right move!" See Chick's THE TRAITOR.