The New York Times reported on October 19 that President Obama has decided against visiting the Sikh Golden Temple in India because he would be required to wear a head covering:

But the plan appears to have foundered on the thorny question of how Mr. Obama would cover his head, as Sikh tradition requires, while visiting the temple.

“To come to golden temple he needs to cover his head,” said Dalmegh Singh, secretary of the committee that runs the temple. “That is our tradition.”

Mr. Obama, a Christian, has struggled to fend off persistent rumors that he is a Muslim, and Sikhs in the United States have often been mistaken for Muslims.

The Obama administration's concerns about the president wearing a head-covering are a testament to how toxic and destructive the national discourse has become on the topic of Islam.

As Media Matters has documented, conservative media have incessantly promoted the lie that President Obama is a Muslim -- a lie that 20 percent of Americans have come to believe. They have also repeatedly failed to distinguish between violent extremists and the other billion-plus Muslims in the world. Not surprisingly, conservative media have also sought to turn certain religious clothing and articles of faith into symbols of danger and a threat to all things American.

During the 2008 campaign, a photo of Obama dressed in traditional local garments during a 2006 trip to Somalia was circulated by conservative media and continues to be used to attack Obama and tie him to Islam, never mind that the clothing reportedly has “no religious significance to it whatsoever.”

In an August 17 Washington Times column, Frank Gaffney wrote: “As he hosted the Ramadan fast-breaking dinner at the White House on Friday, Mr. Obama showed his true colors on Shariah. ... Shariah is about power, not faith, and no amount of Obama subsidies, solidarity or spin on behalf of that agenda will persuade the American people to allow the so-called 'tradition of Islam' to supplant our civil liberties, form of government and way of life." The following illustration accompanied the piece:

Earlier this year the Washington Times also published an illustration of Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan wearing a turban alongside a Gaffney column accusing Kagan of abetting “stealth jihad.” Gaffney claimed that by sponsoring an Islamic Finance Project at Harvard Law School, Kagan “enabled” Sharia, which he said “is the name given by the authorities of Islam to the barbaric, totalitarian and supremacist code that its adherents seek to impose on all of us.”

The Washington Times had previously used this doctored photo to attack Kagan:

In addition, Rush Limbaugh has repeatedly referred to Senator Richard Durbin as “Dick Turban” due to the fact that he criticized prisoner abuse at Guantanamo Bay. The following image was published in an issue of The Limbaugh Letter:

Nancy Pelosi was also criticized by conservative media for wearing a headscarf during a trip to Syria. When Laura Bush donned a headscarf during her 2007 Saudi Arabia visit, the Weekly Standard stated:

Americans don't force their women to wear those ridiculous outfits, and by all rights they shouldn't be forced to do so just because they are visiting a Muslim country. We live in a free country--if Muslims (or anyone else trying to go incognito) want to wear those things over here, that's their prerogative.

[...]

The first lady represents the American people, she is not a private citizen, and she certainly isn't acting as a private citizen in her tour of the Middle East. That she would oblige her hosts by wearing a shmata on her head is a tacit endorsement of Islam's subjugation of women.

Muslims and individuals mistaken to be Muslim because of their dress (i.e. Sikh men who wear turbans) have encountered both verbal and physical violence. As the Seattle Times reported in 2003:

In many regions of the globe, swaddling the head in fabric is simply a natural response to the scorching heat and dust. Scholars believe it was an ancient people living under a merciless sun who first invented the turban.

But in the wake of recent terrorist attacks, the turban, originally a practical idea for protection, has become a symbol many Americans associate with terrorists.

In SeaTac last week, a man was charged with attacking a turban-wearing Sikh cab driver, calling him a “butcher terrorist.” In Seattle, a man was arrested after he allegedly tried to choke a Sikh, telling him, “You have no right to attack our country.” In Arizona, a man shot a Sikh gas-station owner to death, later explaining to authorities: “I'm a patriot.”

Hundreds of other assaults on Sikhs have been reported across the country, a trend that strikes many as bizarrely misguided.

Organizations and leaders have attempted to provide a counter-narrative to combat the characterization of Islam as a 'terrorist' religion. Yet, with 85.5 million viewers in October, media engines such as Fox News have drowned out their voices. The issue of the Golden Temple serves as an apparent consequence of this phenomenon.

The Golden Temple is not a Muslim holy site. However, even if it was, visiting the temple with a head covering would not make Obama Muslim. And even if Obama were Muslim, in the words of Colin Powell:

Well, the correct answer is he is not a Muslim. He's a Christian; has always been a Christian. But the really right answer is, “What if he is? Is there something wrong with being a Muslim in this country?” The answer's “No, that's not America.” Is there something wrong with some seven-year-old Muslim American kid believing that he or she could be President? Yet, I have heard senior members of my own Party drop the suggestion he's Muslim and he might be associated with terrorists. This is not the way we should be doing it in America.

Previously:

Yes, belief that Obama is Muslim is a GOP trend

The Wash. Times' Obama-Muslim picture book

Rush: Obama, Muslim, Obama, Muslim, Obama, Muslim

Kuhner: Obama is a “cultural Muslim who is promoting an anti-American” agenda

Kilmeade “misspoke” about “all terrorists” being “Muslims” -- twice

O'Reilly makes absurd comparison to defend his attack on Muslims

Newsmax magazine mars look at Islam with cartoon reinforcing Muslim terrorist stereotype