The Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson has said no Muslim should be president of the United States of America.In an interview with NBC for broadcast on Sunday morning, the retired neurosurgeon said: “I would not advocate that we put a Muslim in charge of this nation. I absolutely would not agree with that.”Carson’s discussion with Meet the Press host Chuck Todd centered around controversy that arose this week when Donald Trump – the real-estate mogul keeping Carson in second place in the polls – failed to correct an audience member at a New Hampshire campaign rally who said President Obama was a Muslim. The audience member also appeared to advocate the forcible removal of Muslims from the US. In response to a follow-up question about whether he would support a Muslim candidate for president, Carson said, “I would not advocate that we put a Muslim in charge of this nation,” Carson said. “I absolutely would not agree with that.” He has refused to retract his statement as well, insisting that the country cannot elect people whose faith might interfere with carrying out the duties of the constitution, and that Shariah Law was not aligned with the Constitution of the USA. Carson’s campaign reported strong fundraising and more than 100,000 new Facebook friends in the 24 hours after his comments were aired, giving us an insight into just how real Islamophobia is the country.The Democrats, social media, along with the nation’s largest Muslim advocacy group had a field day after Carson’s comments aired. Article six of the constitution was quoted one too many times which states, “no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States”. The Democrats took the opportunity to slam the candidate, labeling him unfit to become Commander-in-Chief and his remarks “inappropriate, foolish and quintessentially un-American”.America’s Muslim population is small, but it is growing, especially in swing states, like Florida, Virginia, Ohio and Texas. While the law is clear, the politics of Muslim culture in America are not. Fourteen years after Islamic extremists executed the deadliest terrorist attack in US history, a suspicious stance resonates with some voters. While George W. Bush was able to call Islam a religion of peace after 9/11, it’s impossible to imagine today’s Republican Party making any kind of positive gesture toward Muslims.
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