Ben Carson Says He’d Consider Religion As Probable Cause For Searches

Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson told ABC’s This Week that he “would certainly be willing to listen to somebody” argue that the religion of Middle Eastern refugees should be considered probable cause for searches or wiretaps.

“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 the program Sunday morning. “I think that’s one of the problems, we get to our little corners and we don’t want to listen to anybody anymore.”

Carson has come under fire recently for Islamophobic comments. Last week, he told Chuck Todd on NBC’s Meet the Press that he would “not advocate that we put a Muslim in charge of this nation,” Carson said. “I absolutely would not agree with that.”

Those comments seemed to contradict the Constitution, which explicitly states that there shall be no religious test for public office. Carson has criticized coverage of the comment, saying that not advocating for a Muslim president is not tantamount to saying Muslim candidates shouldn’t run.

“Not advocating they run for president in no way precludes them from running,” Carson said Friday at the Values Voter Summit, a Christian conference in Washington.

Carson’s latest comment on Muslims in America also seems to go against U.S. law.

For search warrants, “probable cause exists when there is a fair probability that a search will result in evidence of a crime being discovered,” according to the Legal Information Institute. In other words, using religion as a test for a search warrant would suggest that members of a religion have a “fair probability” of committing a crime. While Carson did not say he agreed that religion should be enough for probable cause, it may be broadly representative of his beliefs about Islam that he would entertain the idea.

During the broadcast, Carson also backed up comments he made Friday asserting that “many of the immigrants trying to cross the border into the U.S. are hardened criminals from Iraq, Somalia and Russia.”

Carson, a Seventh-day Adventist, has focused on Sharia law in his discussions of Islam. In a conversation with The Hill, Carson claimed that a Muslim candidate could use taqiya, a practice he said “is a component of Shia [Islam] that allows, and even encourages you to lie to achieve your goals.”

For that reason, even if a Muslim presidential candidate renounced sharia law, Carson wouldn’t trust him.

According to Hussein Rashid, a professor of religious studies at Hofstra University who sits on the editorial board of the Islamic Monthly, taqiya allows Muslims to lie about being a Muslim — but only when faced with persecution or death.

Carson is currently in a virtual tie for the Republican nomination. In the most recent NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll, Carson garnered 20 percent of voter support. Donald Trump polled at 21 percent, within the margin of error for a tie.

Original Article
Source: thinkprogress.org/
Author: Samantha Page