The news about Barack Obama's campaign shunning Muslim voters presents a major civil rights challenge to the Democratic candidate for President. Reading about the Obama volunteers in Detroit who asked two women in head scarves to stay away from the podium at a rally, so they wouldn't appear in a photo with the candidate is sad.

Obama made phone calls to the women in Detroit, Shimaa Abdelfadeel and Hebba Aref, and his campaign released the text of his apology which Abdelfadeel and Arefaccepted. But, The New York Times reports, they are not the only ones who are getting a stiff arm from the campaign. Representative Keith Ellison, the first Muslim member of Congress (and the guy Obama's opponents deliberately mix up with him when they say he took his oath of office on the Koran), was enthusiastic about stumping for Obama in Iowa. He offered to campaign in Cedar Rapids, which has a significant Muslim community. The campaign asked him to cancel his trip.

Obama has been steering clear of mosques as well, even as he tours churches and synagogues.

For Muslims, who have endured bigotry and discrimination during the Bush years, particularly after 9-11, being treated like poison by multicultural Obama is particularly disappointing and depressing.

It is obvious what the campaign is worried about. Rumors that Obama's middle name, Hussein, makes him a "terrorist,” that he hates America, won't wear a flag pin, attended a madrassa, etc. etc., pollute the web. They affect voters. And there have been "damning" photos of Obama in regional dress on a trip to Somalia that circulated online and then surfaced on television during the Democratic primary debates. Obama's campaign is trying hard to deal with these attempted Swift Boatings more successfully than the last Democratic nominee.

But stiff-arming a whole group of voters who have been systematically harassed and marginalized by this Administration is a dreadful tactic. Besides which, Obama would be better served if he didn't appear to be afraid of being associated with Muslims. The best thing about the Obama campaign is its sunny appeal to the better qualities of our country. And Obama's best moment in the campaign so far came when he stood up to bigotry, giving the speech on race that even his critics found inspiring. Instead of cringing and hiding from the issue, when YouTube clips of his former pastor inconveniently brought it up, he addressed the racism and fear that divides black and white Americans directly, and raised the possibility in the minds of his listeners that we might actually be able to transcend it.

Anti-Muslim bigotry calls for a response that hits the same high notes.