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ON GUARD: A military official talk with with Barack Obama in Baghdad, Iraq, yesterday. Obama is currently on tour of the Middle East and Europe. PIC/AP |
In a memo to reporters, described as "a few guidelines we sent staff before departure to the Middle East," Obama advance staffer Peter Newell laid out rules on attire for Jordan and Israel. First among them: "Do not wear green."
An Obama aide explained to reporters that green is the color associated with the militant Palestinian group Hamas. But while the color does appear on Hamas banners, there is no particular symbolism to wearing green clothes, experts said. Moreover, green is more generally seen as a symbol of Islam.
"A ban on wearing green seems bizarre," said Richard Bulliet, a professor of Middle Eastern history at Columbia University, who said the color is associated with the family of the Prophet Mohammed.
"I would hazard the guess that the campaign's concern is more with distorted - and religiously inaccurate - reporting by Obama's detractors than with any actual signal that might be conveyed," he said, referring to false rumors that Obama is a Muslim. "You don't want to have some blogger come along and say 'Obama is showing his true color.'"
"I think they're just being overcautious to a ridiculous degree," said Bulliet.
"We wanted to be as respectful as possible. We wanted to go to the highest level," said Jen Psaki, an Obama spokeswoman in Amman, of the campaign's full list of sartorial suggestions, which also include a ban on nail polish and tank tops for women.
Another Obama spokesman, Bill Burton, didn't explain the admonition against wearing green, but downplayed the memo. "It was an informal document put together by people on the ground compiling info from a range of sources," he said. "Some reporters on our trip had asked for advice on what to wear and so it was given to travelling press."
Hamas, the group that controls the Gaza Strip, flies a green flag, as do some other Islamist groups. But the color appears on a vast array of official symbols, including the Saudi flag. Jordan's Queen Rania al-Abdullah has been pictured in green outfits.
A spokesman for the Council on American Islamic Relations, Ibrahim Hooper, said Muslims might take offense at the campaign's instruction. "Are you kidding?" Hooper asked, when told of the memo, calling the move a "misstep."
The president of the Arab American Institute, James Zogby, said he didn't think the rule would give offense, but that he did find it puzzling. "I've never heard of that before," he said, adding that nobody had ever suggested avoiding the color on his satellite television show, which airs weekly in the Arab world. "This is an overreach on somebody's part," he said. "It's not going to insult anybody, nor is it going to offend them if somebody does wear green."
