GOP CANDIDATE BEN CARSON: NO MUSLIM SHOULD BE PRESIDENT

In an interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Carson, a retired brain surgeon who often refers to his own deep Christian faith, was asked whether a president’s religion should matter.

Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson said Islam is antithetical to the Constitution, and he doesn't believe that a Muslim should be elected president. He added: the president's faith should matter to voters if it runs counter to the values and principles of America.

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

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

As expected, his comments has drawn 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 further added that the Constitution expressly forbids religious tests for those seeking public office and called for the repudiation of "these un-American comments."

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, who taped Sunday an episode of Iowa Press, an Iowa Public Television program, was asked if he agreed with Carson's statements on Muslims being president. His response: "The Constitution specifies that there shall be no religious test for public office, and I am a constitutionalist."

Carson's comments came amid lingering fallout over another 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."

Senator Bernie Sanders, Democrat and a presidential hopeful, said on the campaign trail in New Hampshire that he was “disappointed” in Carson, who is black.

“It took us too long to overcome the prejudice against electing a Catholic or an African-American president. People should be elected to office based on their ideas, not their religion or the color of their skin,” Sanders said.

Democratic National Committee chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a congresswoman from Florida, said it was “hard to understand what’s so difficult about supporting an American citizen’s right to run for president.”

“Of course a Muslim, or any other American citizen, can run for president, end of story. To think otherwise is not only harmful to our political process, but it elevates and validates discrimination in this country,” she said, calling for an apology.