Most people have seen this photo of Obama wearing a headdress in Kenya. As Brian pointed out, and I agree with him, it’s pretty embarrassing to see any conservatives running with the photo, trying to portray Obama as some Muslim extremist. That’s liberal fringe-type stuff, people.

But the Kenyans apparently think it was the Clinton camp who leaked the photo, and in the process attempted to portray all Kenyans and Somalis (and Muslims) as terrorists. It’s interesting on one level because it’s usually the liberals trying to complain that conservatives are “profiling.” Conservatives know better, and this is just another example of “what we know.” It’s the libs who pull this crap.

Kenyan Muslims have thrown their weight behind ethnic Somali elders who plan to stage a protest after Friday prayers against the way a photo of a robed Barack Obama has pulled their people into the race for the White House.

The picture, which appeared on a U.S. Web site, showed the presidential hopeful in a white headdress and traditional Somali attire during a 2006 visit to Wajir in Kenya’s remote northeast.

The Illinois senator has battled a whispering campaign by fringe elements who wrongly say he is Muslim, and aides accused his Democratic party rival Hillary Clinton’s camp of “the most shameful, offensive fear-mongering” after it was published.

Incensed at the implication that Obama, whose late father was from western Kenya, did anything wrong on his visit, elders in Wajir have demanded an apology and vowed to demonstrate.

“The clan he was with have every right to be offended,” said Hussein Ali, a 32-year-old unemployed man outside the main Jamia Mosque in the capital Nairobi.

“Obama’s enemies are trying to portray him as a terrorist, saying all Muslims, and especially Somalis, are dangerous men.”

…

Clinton’s campaign denies authorizing the release of the controversial photo, but says that with 700 staffers it could not be known whether someone had sent it out unofficially.

That has not mollified elders in Wajir, a small desert town near the Somali border, who demanded she “clear her name.” Other Kenyans questioned the timing of the picture’s publication, just days before make-or-break votes in Ohio and Texas next week.

For many Americans, Somalia conjures up disturbing images of dead U.S. troops being dragged through Mogadishu’s dusty streets during the “Black Hawk Down” battle of 1993.

The U.S. military launched air strikes on the Horn of Africa country last year in its hunt for al Qaeda, including suspects wanted over the bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi in 1988.

I doubt Hillary was trying to remind Americans of Somalia…

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