Barack Obama. - File photo image:28508:1::0

Two Muslim women, who were attending an Obama rally on Monday, were barred from the stage in an attempt to prevent the women’s headscarves from appearing in photographs or on television with the candidate.

Hebba Aref, a 25-year-old lawyer who was an Obama supporter said she was disappointed with the incident. One of the volunteers had even asked her to remove the head scarf if she wanted to sit behind Obama.

Obama is sitting there and teaching new politics and change and saying he is going to gather people of every faith and race and ethnicity, and going to bring us all together as one, and at the same time, you have discrimination tactics against Muslims taking place at the same event.

She said she would continue to support Obama and vote for him in the general elections.

Obama campaign apologised for the incident on Wednesday. Campaign spokesman Bill Burton said.

This, of course, is not the policy of the campaign. It is offensive and counter to Obama’s commitment to bring Americans together and simply not the kind of campaign we run. We sincerely apologize for the behavior of these volunteers.

Political opponents have been trying to use Obama's Muslim connection as a weapon to target him. A recent survey published had found that 14 per cent of Republicans, 10 per cent of Democrats and 8 per cent of independents mistakenly took Obama as a Muslim.