GOP candidate Carson: Muslim shouldn't be elected president,

[JanjaWeed]

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson says Islam is antithetical to the Constitution, and he doesn't believe that a Muslim should be elected president.

Carson, a devout Christian, says a president's faith should matter to voters if it runs counter to the values and principles of America.

Responding to a question during an interview broadcast Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press," he described the Islamic faith as inconsistent with the Constitution.

"I would not advocate that we put a Muslim in charge of this nation," Carson said. "I absolutely would not agree with that."

He did not specify in what way Islam ran counter to constitutional principles.

Carson's comments drew strong criticism from the country's largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

"To me this really means he is not qualified to be president of the United States," said the group's spokesman, Ibrahim Hooper. "You cannot hold these kinds of views and at the same time say you will represent all Americans, of all faiths and backgrounds."

Hooper said the Constitution expressly forbids religious tests for those seeking public office and called for the repudiation of "these un-American comments."

Slideshow: A look at Republican presidential hopeful Ben Carson >>

In a separate appearance on NBC, one of Carson's rivals for the GOP nomination, Ohio Gov. John Kasich, was asked whether he would have a problem with a Muslim in the White House. "The answer is, at the end of the day, you've got to go through the rigors, and people will look at everything. But, for me, the most important thing about being president is you have leadership skills, you know what you're doing and you can help fix this country and raise this country. Those are the qualifications that matter to me."

Carson's comments came amid lingering fallout over Republican Donald Trump's refusal last week to take issue with a man during a campaign event who wrongly called President Barack Obama a Muslim and said Muslims are "a problem in this country."


FILE - In this Monday, Aug. 3, 2015, file photo, Republican presidential candidate and retired neuro …
Also speaking on NBC on Sunday, Trump said that a Muslim in the White House is "something that could happen... Some people have said it already happened, frankly."

In multiple interviews Sunday, Trump tried to draw a distinction between all American Muslims and extremist Muslims in the U.S. and elsewhere.

"I have friends that are Muslims they're great people, amazing people," Trump said on CNN's "State of the Union."

"You have extremists Muslims that are in a class by themselves," Trump added. "It's a problem in this country it's a problem throughout this world....You do have a problem with radical Muslims."

GOP candidates have since been split over whether to criticize Trump, who has been a vocal skeptic of Obama's birthplace and faith. Obama is Christian.

In the NBC interview, Carson said he believes that Obama was born in the U.S. and is Christian, saying he has "no reason to doubt" what the president says.

Carson also made a distinction when it came to electing Muslims to Congress, calling it a "different story" from the presidency that "depends on who that Muslim is and what their policies are, just as it depends on what anybody else says."

Congress has one Muslim member, Democratic Rep. Keith Ellison of Minnesota.

"If there's somebody who's of any faith, but they say things, and their life has been consistent with things that will elevate this nation and make it possible for everybody to succeed, and bring peace and harmony, then I'm with them," Carson said.

___

Associated Press writer Kevin Freking contributed to this report.

GOP candidate Carson: Muslim shouldn't be elected president - Yahoo News

 

[SarthakGanguly]

Utterly stupid.

Islam can be antithetical to the Constitution according to the points he raised. Not necessarily a Muslim.

For example - even Christianity or Judaism would be against the Constitution. A secular state ... you know the drill. But Christians and Jews will and should be fine. Just as Muslims.

 

[JanjaWeed]

Utterly stupid.

Islam can be antithetical to the Constitution according to the points he raised. Not necessarily a Muslim.

For example - even Christianity or Judaism would be against the Constitution. A secular state ... you know the drill. But Christians and Jews will and should be fine. Just as Muslims.

C'mon...you are talking about an American here...that too a republican! & Sarah Palin can see Russia from her living room

 

[Arya Desa]

So? In pakstan a non-muslim can't be Prime Minister.

 

[JUBA]

So? In pakstan a non-muslim can't be Prime Minister.

Well unlike the U.S. Pakistan doesn't claim to be a secular country.

 

[SHAMK9]

So? In pakstan a non-muslim can't be Prime Minister.

Pakistan is an islamic republic and I agree, its a stupid rule.
On topic: Remember when they said blacks cannot be in office

 

[Icewolf]

These guys are trying to garner extreme conservative votes

 

[Zibago]

World largest exporter of democracy

 

[Devil Soul]

World largest exporter of democracy

I object ... It comes under freedom of expression .. How's that for an excuse

 

[Hiptullha]

60-70 years ago, Right-wing Americans were saying Catholics can't be president.
JFK, the first Catholic president of the US had to make a speech, going on about how he is all loyal to the United States, secular and is not influenced by the Catholic Church at all. Interesting, eh?
American Rhetoric: John F. Kennedy -- Address to the Greater Houston Ministerial Association

I believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute; where no Catholic prelate would tell the President -- should he be Catholic -- how to act, and no Protestant minister would tell his parishioners for whom to vote; where no church or church school is granted any public funds or political preference, and where no man is denied public office merely because his religion differs from the President who might appoint him, or the people who might elect him.

For while this year it may be a Catholic against whom the finger of suspicion is pointed, in other years it has been -- and may someday be again -- a Jew, or a Quaker, or a Unitarian, or a Baptist. It was Virginia's harassment of Baptist preachers, for example, that led to Jefferson's statute of religious freedom. Today, I may be the victim, but tomorrow it may be you -- until the whole fabric of our harmonious society is ripped apart at a time of great national peril.

Finally, I believe in an America where religious intolerance will someday end, where all men and all churches are treated as equals, where every man has the same right to attend or not to attend the church of his choice, where there is no Catholic vote, no anti-Catholic vote, no bloc voting of any kind, and where Catholics, Protestants, and Jews, at both the lay and the pastoral levels, will refrain from those attitudes of disdain and division which have so often marred their works in the past, and promote instead the American ideal of brotherhood.

For contrary to common newspaper usage, I am not the Catholic candidate for President.

I am the Democratic Party's candidate for President who happens also to be a Catholic.

I do not speak for my church on public matters; and the church does not speak for me. Whatever issue may come before me as President, if I should be elected, on birth control, divorce, censorship, gambling or any other subject, I will make my decision in accordance with these views -- in accordance with what my conscience tells me to be in the national interest, and without regard to outside religious pressure or dictates. And no power or threat of punishment could cause me to decide otherwise.

My point is, this sort of stuff happens but eventually dies down.

 

[opruh]

Nothing new, muricans are racists.

 

[rubyjackass]

Trump has gone moderate. He says American muslims are fine, only radicals are not. That is pretty liberal for GOP.