Which tenets of Islam does Ben Carson think are incompatible with the Constitution?

The oppression of women, I would guess.

All of them.

When you are dealing with a certain type of person, facts and logic mean nothing and it all boils down to anything you don’t like becoming utter anathema to things that you do like. Since Ben Carson is one of those types, I would wager that he doesn’t even know what any of the tenets of Islam are; all he knows is that Islamophobia gets votes from the base of his party, so therefore Islam is all about raping fetuses and trying to kill God and America.

They are not interested in talk, only chanting whatever sound-bite the Tea Party tells them they have to say in order to not be tossed from the party, excommunicated and deported.

@filmfann Don’t most religions oppress or limit women?

I suspect that since he’s extremely-religious, he knows what it is like to really believe. Therefore, he likely fears the Islamic equivalent of him. I can only assume that if he were to elaborate, we’d quickly here nonsense about this being a “Christian nation”.

He’s not a very thoughtful guy. Here’s a surgeon who hasn’t acquired the most rudimentary understanding of science. I wouldn’t worry too much about making sense of his statements.

I don’t know, and I cannot speak for Dr. Carson.

What I can say is that he’s playing to his audience, who eats up stuff like this. Muslims have been easy targets for a generation, and he’s just playing the game of shooting at an easy mark.

Remember, religion is by definition irrational, and therefore, appealing to the population on the basis of irrationality squares the product of that irrationality.

When asked if he thought Islam is consistent with the Constitution, Carson said, “No, I don’t, I do not.”

Mr Carson of course is entitled to his personal views on Islam that I am certain many many Americans agree with. That said….Mr Carson needs to also acknowledge that the Constitution expressly states “that ‘no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office,’” take a moment to parse his words and more succinctly express his views within the framework of the Constitution.

I suspect he knows little about Islam. His comments are aimed at a base of voters who also know little to nothing about Islam except to automatically equate it with terrorism.

@Pachy Quite so. My experience is that the most narrow-minded, bigoted people tend not to be well-traveled. They tend to think that the entire world either is like where they live, or should be. The rest of the world is screwed up because other places are different. North Korea would be more benevolent if they embraced Jesus as fervently as many Southerners do. Natural disasters are God’s displeasure at allowing homosexuals to live. In short, that dogma is most popular among the ignorant and uneducated.

I think Carson is rational enough that he doesn’t prejudge people based on their religion. I think since he was raised by very religious parents, he projects how he thinks of Christians onto Muslim, and probably every other religion too. How many times when I say to a Christian, “I’m Jewish, but I’m an atheist,” do they ask, “how is that possible?” A lot! Because for them if you identify with a Abrahamic religion you must be a theist. They make assumptions about how people identify themselves as being defined by how they see the world. Carson was using his particular definitions during the first Q&A on the topic. He clarified that he would always listen to someone as an individual, and I think he would in general. I don’t think he would ever vote for a Muslim President, but I think overall he is not prejudice on every level regarding Muslims.

@jerv, I could not agree more. Since I took my first trip to China years ago—and then to Germany and England—I’ve preached that every American student should be required (and funded) to travel abroad for a summer.

Islam would have no use for the First Amendment.

In fairness to Dr. Carson, if you’ve spent the majority of your adult life learning about and dealing with the medically complex issues required for him to excel in his profession, that realistically doesn’t leave much spare time left over to learn details about religions or cultures different from one’s own.

He’s out of his field in the political spectrum as well as dealing with the exacting media questioning. Clearly his comments on Islam were off the cuff and not rigorously thought out.

But, unlike the vapid Sarah Palin who was hard pressed to name any magazines she reads regularly, at least he has a more viable excuse as I’m sure none of us could make heads or tails of the multiple professional journals he had to read to stay abreast of new developments in his field. For years his attention was pretty narrowly focused upon his field of expertise and I’m sure that there were many patients and their families who were mighty glad that was the case.

So, I’m willing to give him a pass for being less than astute answering politically motivated Qs. However, he does have some catching up to do if he wants to continue to remain a viable candidate.

Plus, I’m not overly fond of his stance on many of the relevant issues anyhow so it would be no big loss to me were he to return to Neurosurgery.

_*He’s out of his field in the political spectrum as well as dealing with the exacting media questioning.
*_

And @Buttonstc How does your comment make Dr. Carson any less qualified than Obama?? Being a Junior Senator who did nothing at all for a career makes him more qualified to be the leader of the free world and Dr. Carson not? Seriously???

That’s the thing, some people who had a serious objection to Obama’s lack of political experience now are supporting Carson or Trump and saying how great it is they aren’t politicians. Lol.

I don’t mean you @Cruiser, I mean some of the right wing extremist who can’t see their own hypocrisy.

I complained about Obama lacking political experience, it’s partly why I voted for Hillary in the primaries.

@Buttonstc ”[I]f you’ve spent the majority of your adult life learning about and dealing with the medically complex issues required for him to excel in his profession, that realistically doesn’t leave much spare time left over to learn details about religions or cultures different from one’s own.”

Actually, I learned all of those things long before I was even old enough to attend med school. I learned that as part of my normal K-12 public education rather than through any hobbies of my own, so pretty much everyone from my school system had about the same knowledge of other cultures and comparative theology as I do.

It’s funny how one’s formative years can have a profound influence on what sort of person one grows into. I’m thinking that whatever lack of knowledge Carson has is more an indication of how he was raised before he became an adult.

I heard some conservatives make an argument in favor of Ben Carson’s comments recently and this is what they were saying:

It isn’t that a Muslim can’t be president. It’s that a Muslim who couldn’t uphold the Constitution can’t be president. A devout Christian knows that Mosaic Laws instructing the stoning of homosexuals and wayward children are outdated—Christians do not have to follow those laws (see Galatians 3:24–26). However, a devout Muslim knows that laws prohibiting the depiction or mockery of Muhammad and calling for the death of apostates are current and relevant (and they would of course clash with the Bill of Rights). They were also arguing that Muslims are supposed to live according to Sharia Law in general and a Muslim President might inevitably try to impose Sharia Law on the entire nation.

So that’s the argument. I don’t necessarily agree with it, but it is a little less incendiary than saying “no Muslim can ever be president”.

@DominicY If you really need a translator to speak English though, I think that affects whether one should be able to hold any government office in this country. Screw morality or the tenets of religion; if you can’t even adequately explain yourself, then you don’t deserve power. The same applies if you need a team of experts to cover for you and spin what you have to say instead of being able to do your own spin control.

Also, are you sure that Christians know that certain laws are outdated?

“They were also arguing that Muslims are supposed to live according to Sharia Law in general and a Muslim President might inevitably try to impose Sharia Law on the entire nation.”

Yes, but when a Christian does it, that just means that America is more American than ever. It’s okay to have Sharia Law so long as it’s the Bible and not the Quran. We’re so Christian, that we know more about God and Jesus than that socialist Pope does!

Surely you don’t know what you are talking about. The Opposition to Islamic rules/laws in no way relies upon the other things you mention. That is dishonest.

Honor Killing, female genital mutilation are both examples of what we cannot tolerate.

I would be willing to take the position of Aquinas against yours:

Saint Thomas affirms that not all immigrants are equal. Every nation has the right to decide which immigrants are beneficial, that is, “peaceful,” to the common good. As a matter of self-defense, the State can reject those criminal elements, traitors, enemies and others who it deems harmful or “hostile” to its citizens.

The second thing he affirms is that the manner of dealing with immigration is determined by law in the cases of both beneficial and “hostile” immigration. The State has the right and duty to apply its law