Ibrahim Hooper — national communications director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations — called for Ben Carson to withdraw from the 2016 election during a CNN interview Monday.
Hooper said that while Donald Trump espouses “run of the mill bigotry,” Carson’s Sunday statement that he doesn’t “advocate that we would put a Muslim in charge of this nation” is “an actual rejection of the clear language of the Constitution.” (CARSON: Islam Is Not Consistent With The Constitution [VIDEO])
HOOPER: Well, it’s interesting that an individual who is trashing the Constitution is accusing american Muslims of somehow not following the Constitution… Mr. Carson is rejecting the Constitution when he says put a religious test for public office… It would be laughable if it wasn’t so tragic… If an individual clearly doesn’t abide by or care for the Constitution, I think that’s a disqualifier in terms of running for the nation’s highest elected office. So we’re calling for him to withdraw from the race… With Donald Trump, I mean, it’s in the same category, but with Donald Trump it’s just run of the mill bigotry. With Mr. Carson, it’s an actual rejection of the clear language of the Constitution.
CAIR was listed by the U.S. government as an unindicted co-conspirator in a scheme that provided funding to the terror group Hamas.