Ben Carson Caused a Firestorm with His ‘Muslim President’ Comments. Critics Should Look at This Map.

Ben Carson Caused a Firestorm with His ‘Muslim President’ Comments. Critics Should Look at This Map.

By Chris Enloe and Kyle Becker (25 mins ago) 

Ben Carson ignited a media firestorm on Sunday after he said that he doesn’t believe the Oval Office is any place for a Muslim, and now Carson is doubling down on that sentiment.
During an interview with The Hill Sunday evening, Carson said that one of his main objections is how Sharia law doesn’t align with the Constitution:

“I do not believe Sharia is consistent with the Constitution of this country. Muslims feel that their religion is very much a part of your public life and what you do as a public official, and that’s inconsistent with our principles and our Constitution.”

He added that whomever is elected president, they should be sworn in on a “stack of Bibles, not a Koran.”
However, Carson said that there is one instance where he wouldn’t take issue with a Muslim in the White House. That exception would be for any Muslim who:

“…publicly rejected all the tenants of Sharia and lived a life consistent with that.”

Without defending the specifics of everything Ben Carson said, there are some interesting factoids that should be brought into consideration when parsing the GOP presidential candidate’s comments.
For instance, Muslim-majority nations tend to score much lower on human rights, according to data put together by the Global Network for Rights and Development:

The only country to core higher than 53% was the UAE. Still, for some context, European nations tend to score between 70%-90% on the International Human Rights Rank Indicator rating.
The United Nations has been muted in its criticism of human rights abuses in Muslim-majority nations, due in part to there being at least 49 such countries as of 2010, according to Pew Research. More than one-fifth of Muslims in the world have minority status in their host countries.
Extensive research conducted by Pew shows that overwhelming majorities of Muslims support making sharia law the “law of the land” in numerous Muslim-majority nations. The percentages declined markedly in the regions of Southeastern Europe and Central Asia.

Pew Research defines sharia as:

Sharia, or Islamic law, offers moral and legal guidance for nearly all aspects of life – from marriage and divorce, to inheritance and contracts, to criminal punishments. Sharia, in its broadest definition, refers to the ethical principles set down in Islam’s holy book (the Quran) and examples of actions by the Prophet Muhammad (sunna).

The support for various aspects of sharia is mixed by region of the world, but it is notable that in the Middle East and North Africa, majorities support the punishment of execution for leaving Islam:

Additionally, the U.N. gives numerous Muslim-majority nations the lowest scores for its Gender Development rankings (178)
Therefore, all such comparative political data being considered, one has to be cautious interpreting Carson’s comments that sharia is incompatible with the U.S. Constitution.

It’s also apparent from the group’s 2014 map of Freedom in the World that the Middle East and Northern Africa are filled with “unfree” or “partly free” nations that are Muslim-majority.
Freedom Watch, is blunt:

The Middle East and North Africa registered the worst civil liberties scores of any region.

Carson touched on the political correctness surrounding the issue, which he attributed as one of America’s greatest problems today:

“Part of the problem today is that we’re so busy trying to be politically correct, that we lose all perspective.”
“So often we get into these irrelevant things, because obviously if a Muslim was running for president, there would be a lot more education about Sharia, about Taqiyya.”

To say that Carson has received blowback for his comments would be an understatement. It has come from nearly every corner of the political world, even from a fellow Republican presidential candidate.
Most of Carson’s critics cite Article VI of the Constitution, which prohibits religious tests for candidates of public office, as a reason why Carson is utterly misguided.
And while a recent Gallup survey found that as many as 40% of Americans share Carson’s view, it remains to be seen how his outspokenness will affect his presidential aspirations.