The suggestion by the retired neurosurgeon, who’s been surging toward front-runner Donald Trump in the polls, came after he defended recent comments that he wouldn’t advocate the election of a Muslim president.
Republican presidential candidate, retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson addresses supporters at Spring Arbor University in Spring Arbor, Mich., , Wednesday, Sept. 23, 2015. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio)
Republican presidential hopeful Ben Carson said on Sunday he’d listen to evidence that religion could provide probable cause to search the emails and calls of Syrian refugees in the United States.
“I personally don’t feel that way, but I would certainly be willing to listen to somebody who had evidence to the contrary,” Carson said on ABC’s “This Week.” “I think that’s one of the problems, we get to our little corners, and we don’t want to listen to anybody.”
The suggestion by the retired neurosurgeon, who’s been surging toward front-runner Donald Trump in the polls, came after he defended recent comments that he wouldn’t advocate the election of a Muslim president.
“What we should be talking about is Islam and the tenets of Islam and where do they come from? They come from Sharia. They come from the Koran,” he told host Martha Raddatz. “They come from, you know, the life works and examples of Muhammad. They come from the fatwas, which is the writings of scholars. You know, and if you go back and you look at — what I would like for somebody to show me is an improved Islamic text that opposes Sharia.”
“If you can show me that, I will begin to alter my thinking on this,” he said. “But, right now, when you have something that is against the rights of women, against the rights of gays, subjugates other religions and a host of things that are not compatible with our Constitution, why in fact would you take that chance?”
Carson also beat back criticism of earlier comments in which he suggested that the “women’s lib movement” helped contribute to a more entitled “me generation” of Americans.
The fact of the matter is, you know, the family structure is one of the foundations of a strong country. And when we begin to … move it apart from the family and say, ‘no, it’s about this specific member of the family and it’s about their rights and how they feel,’ that’s problematic,” he said. “It has nothing to do with the women’s movement, although I know a lot of people on the left have tried to make it sound that [way].”
