What Ben Carson was Saying

By Ed Hoffman

There is still fervor over Republican candidate Dr. Ben Carson’s remarks about the incompatibility of a theoretical Muslim presidential candidate with the United States Constitution. So while people are busy condemning Dr. Carson, I have some facts for them to consider. But first, let’s recap the hot-button stories involving provocative Muslim behavior over the past few weeks.

By now, we’re all familiar with the story of Ahmed Mohamed, the 14-year-old Muslim boy in Texas who was detained for bringing a “clock” he supposedly “invented” to his high school. The problem with this “clock” (I have no problem using that term loosely) is that it didn’t tell time, and it looked an awful lot like a briefcase bomb. But since we’re in an era of selective hero-making, Ahmed was predictably defended by everyone on the left, thousands of foolish people on social media and of course, the President – because if Obama had a teenage son from the Sudan living in Texas, he’d look like Ahmed.

But now, there are some new facts that have come to light – facts that people who “stand with Ahmed” might want to digest. As I said on my radio show last week, news reports state that:

• The engineering teacher he originally showed the device to told Ahmed that it looked like a bomb, and advised him not to show it to any more teachers because they might mistake it for one.
• The reason Ahmed’s English teacher felt threatened enough to call police was that he had plugged it into an outlet, set an alarm to go off, and did not mention to her that he had already shown it to the engineering teacher. He did not attempt to explain its purpose to her.
• Officers said Ahmed was being “passive aggressive” when answering their questions, and didn’t have a “reasonable answer” as to what he was doing with the briefcase. “We attempted to question the juvenile about what it was and he would simply only say it was a clock. He didn’t offer any explanation as to what it was for, why he created this device, why he brought it to school,” said James McLellan, Irving Police.
• Ahmed’s sister, now 18, was suspended from school in 2009 because of a bomb scare. This is not “conspiracy” – it is fact that the school district acknowledged to the media. Lesley Weaver, spokeswoman for the Irving school district, said school officials could not release any information about Eyman Mohammed’s episode because the Sudanese parents would not sign the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act. “I wish we could…. provide more information to the media,” Weaver said.

Why am I talking about these things two weeks after the initial story? Because the fact is, it doesn’t end here. If you decide to “stand with Ahmed” for whatever reason (i.e., because your trendy friends are doing it on social media and you want to fit in – a big reason for many people, I suspect), then you need to understand the implications of your “support.” Here’s the next part of the slippery slope, a story out of New Jersey last week. It involves a school board meeting that descended into chaos when a room full of angry Muslim parents were denied a last-minute request by the Jersey City Board of Education. The board elected to keep school open on September 24, despite the parents’ request to close school for the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha. Now, remember: This holiday happened the day after Yom Kippur, an important Jewish holiday – a day the school district did not close for. As one who grew up in a Jewish family, I understand what it’s like to be a student forced to stay home on Yom Kippur and catch up on missed assignments later.

But the Muslim families in this district refused to deal with it the way my family and the Jewish families in their district did. Instead, they sent a school board meeting spiraling out of control, yelling their demands so loudly that officials had to call security. In the televised news report, one student is overheard saying, “We are the majority now. That is clear.” I’ll tell you what’s clear: That becoming the majority is the goal of radical Islam. In Belgium, where Muslims are the largest religious group, Islamic leader Abu Imran told an American reporter, “We believe that the Sharia will dominate. The Sharia will be implemented worldwide.”

For me, that’s what makes Ben Carson’s walk-back comments last week so troubling. Carson told Sean Hannity that he is suddenly now okay with a Muslim running for President so long as that candidate does not favor Sharia law. But according to Abu Imran, Islam and Sharia are the same. “There is no difference between Sharia and Islam,” Imran said. And as for the claim that a Muslim can easily lead a democratic nation? Imran finds that amusing. “Democracy is the opposite of Sharia and Islam,” he said with a chuckle. There it is, from the horse’s mouth. When Ben Carson said that Islam was at odds with the Constitution, he was only saying what Islam itself teaches.

Ed Hoffman is host of The Main Event on AM590, which airs Saturday 9:30 AM- 10:30 AM and Sunday 4:00 PM- 5:00 PM. Follow him on Twitter @EdHoffman, and like him on Facebook by searching The Main Event 590.