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CAIR Calls On Carson To Withdraw From Race After Muslim Comments

WASHINGTON D.C. (WJZ) -- Outrage on the campaign trail after stunning comments from Maryland Dr. Ben Carson. He says a Muslim should not be president and that Islam goes against the Constitution.

Mike Hellgren reports Dr. Carson is standing by his comments.

"We ask Mr. Ben Carson to withdraw," said Nihad Awad, executive director and co-founder of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

The nation's largest Muslim advocacy group wants Dr. Ben Carson out of the presidential race; they're outraged over his comments that a Muslim is unfit to be president.

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

"What Dr. Ben Carson said was hateful, hurtful," said Imam Mahdi Bray, American Muslim Alliance. "Well, he's wrong. He's politically wrong."

Dr. Carson is not backing down in the furor, telling "The Hill," "Muslims feel that their religion is very much a part of your public life."

"I always pray, every day," he told WJZ back in January.

Faith---Christian faith---is also a big part of Dr. Carson's life. Earlier this year, WJZ's Denise Koch asked him how it would impact his decisions as president.

"If they're going to go off on the tangent that I have this divine revelation and it trumps the Constitution, they should do that outside of the public arena," he said.

Dr. Carson did say he believes Muslims are qualified to be in Congress.

"But it depends on who that Muslim is and what their policies are," he said.

"There seems to be a competition to see who can be the most racist, the most xenophobic, in order to galvanize votes," said Rev. Graylan Scott Hagler, Plymouth Congregational United Church of Christ.

This is not the first time Carson's views have caused controversy. He withdrew from a Johns Hopkins commencement after comparing gay people to pedophiles and said going to prison can make someone gay.

"We will not be deterred by bigots," Bray said.

And while he's got plenty of critics this time around, he's got passionate defenders, too.

"Dr. Carson would not---today, yesterday or next week---advocate having a Muslim in the White House as president of the United States. It is that simple; it is that clear. There's nothing else to discuss," said Carson's business manager, Armstrong Williams.

Carson is a retired Johns Hopkins neurosurgeon.

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