diff --git a/lisp/org.el b/lisp/org.el
index 27aeccb..50fa5ce 100644
--- a/lisp/org.el
+++ b/lisp/org.el
@@ -9834,17 +9834,18 @@ If optional argument MERGE is set, merge TABLE into
 	      (setq table (cons defchr table)))) org-link-escape-chars))
    ((null table)
     (setq table org-link-escape-chars)))
-  (mapconcat
-   (lambda (char)
-     (if (or (member char table)
-	     (and (or (< char 32) (= char ?\%) (> char 126))
-		  org-url-hexify-p))
-	 (mapconcat (lambda (sequence-element)
-		      (format "%%%.2X" sequence-element))
-		    (or (encode-coding-char char 'utf-8)
-			(error "Unable to percent escape character: %s"
-			       (char-to-string char))) "")
-       (char-to-string char))) text ""))
+  (if (string-match "^\*[[:alnum:]]+" text) text
+    (mapconcat
+     (lambda (char)
+       (if (or (member char table)
+	       (and (or (< char 32) (= char ?\%) (> char 126))
+		    org-url-hexify-p))
+	   (mapconcat (lambda (sequence-element)
+			(format "%%%.2X" sequence-element))
+		      (or (encode-coding-char char 'utf-8)
+			  (error "Unable to percent escape character: %s"
+				 (char-to-string char))) "")
+	 (char-to-string char))) text "")))
 
 (defun org-link-escape-browser (text)
   (if (org-string-match-p