Washington:  US Muslim leaders today urged Barack Obama to personally apologise to two supporters in headscarves who were barred from appearing in camera shot with the White House contender this week.

The Democrat's campaign has apologised for the snub, which occurred when campaign volunteers at a rally Monday in Detroit, Michigan told the two Muslim women they could not stand behind Obama because of their "hijab" headgear.

But the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) called for a personal apology from Obama to help redress the grievance and also combat growing anti-Islamic sentiment in the United States.

"Although we welcome the Obama campaign's apology, we are extremely concerned about the level of Islamophobia in our society that would prompt other minorities to view Muslim supporters as potential liabilities," CAIR s national legislative director Corey Saylor said in a statement.

"We hope that Senator Obama will personally apologise to the two women and (show) that he decries the current Islamophobic climate in our nation that is not only attacking him, but has even jaded some within his own campaign."

CAIR, the leading US group for Muslims civil rights, also urged Obama to invite the women to the stage during a future campaign event.

An Obama aide, speaking on condition of anonymity, declined to say whether the senator would personally apologise to the women.

But she told AFP that Emmett Beliveau, the campaign s director of advance events, had spoken to at least one of the women, 25-year-old lawyer Hebba Aref, to express remorse.

Source : PTI