Obama’s Kenyan garb was cultural

A Kenyan elder who presented Barack Obama with a traditional outfit that fueled false rumors he was Muslim says that the garb was cultural, not religious -- and that had President Bush visited, he could have “dressed him the same.”

Pictures of the Democratic presidential candidate wearing the robe and turban over his Western-style clothing spread on the Internet.

The Drudge Report website said the photo was circulated by the campaign of rival Hillary Rodham Clinton. But the New York senator’s aides said the campaign had never sanctioned its distribution.

Obama is a member of the United Church of Christ and says he has never been a Muslim.

His late father was from Kenya, which Obama visited in 2006. The Illinois senator was presented the white turban and wraparound robe by a group of elders, including Mohammed Hassan Mumin.

Mumin told a Kenyan newspaper in remarks published Saturday that he had presented similar gifts to several other leaders.

If Bush came, Mumin told the Daily Nation, “I could have dressed him the same as Barack Obama.”

Two Clinton campaign volunteers resigned after circulating e-mails falsely saying Obama was a Muslim and a threat to national security.

Obama’s grandmother has said that her late son was a Christian.

Last month, Obama said that his grandfather had converted to Christianity and then converted to Islam.

“My father never practiced; he was basically agnostic,” Obama said.

His father left the family when Obama was 2.