Ben Carson: Peddling Islamophobia for Political Gain

As political correctness has taken hold in American politics making it more difficult for the GOP to use hate rhetoric in a discriminatory manner, one group is still open game for fear-mongering tactics to be used against.

With the Muslim community, the Republicans has found the perfect scape-goat that is easy to attack due to the political climate in America in a post-9/11 world.

This has made it easier for the GOP to cater to a mostly-white, very nationalistic base of voters that really have nothing better to do than to demonize groups that are not seen as white evangelical men. The GOP has become very astute at using propaganda platforms such as Fox News to push this cycle of hate.

Anyone who watches Fox will come away believing that Black Lives Matter wants to kill all whites and police; all Muslims want to kill Americans; Most Mexicans are illegal aliens that want to take over the USA; and that Planned Parenthood just wants to perform abortions with your money while selling the baby parts for more profit.

We are currently in the middle of an election cycle where candidates are clamoring to appeal to their constituencies. This has been seen with the rise of Donald Trump. The more that he demonizes minorities, the larger his fan base has grown. His GOP opponents have watched and have taken note.

In particular, one candidate stands out more than the others. In a desperate bid to remain relevant and to keep up with the Donald in the race, Ben Carson, a famous pediatric neurosurgeon has begun to demonize Islam and Muslim on the national platform in order to gain votes. This has caused him to gain more media attention and followers.

This began when Dr. Carson said that Muslims should not be president because Sharia is not compatible with the US Constitution. As a result he has faced massive scrutiny from groups such as CAIR, the Democrats, and the more liberal media sources such as MSNBC. In defiance of the attacks as well as the new-found popularity that he is gaining, he has continued to demonize Muslims.

Dr. Carson was recently on Meghan Kelly Live, and he said that there is not one Muslim country that gives women’s rights; has LGBT rights; or rights to people of other religions. In other words, there is no tolerance in a Muslim country and because of the political climate in other countries that Muslims in the USA are not fit to serve in government positions.

It is easy to look Saudi Arabia, Syria, Iran, Afghanistan, and Yemen as how the Muslim world is to shape these views. Saudi Arabia does not allow women to drive. The Taliban makes women wear a Burka. There are also other examples that can be used. However, there are many Muslim countries in the world and upon further examination this is not the truth.

In Tunisia, women’s rights are preserved and in many ways they have more rights than in the USA. For example, if a husband is not maintaining his wife and children, the wife has the right to take her husband to court and to sue him for maintenance. The woman always wins. If the husband does not comply and give his wife money every month for her maintenance, he will be put into prison unless he pays the money.

Women have the right to education; to abortion; to drive; to pick her husband; and many other rights. This is not just in Tunisia but also with other countries. In Islamic Sharia, there are rights that a husband has over his wife and that the wife has over her husband. The husband cannot demand his rights, but a woman can. There are more rights that a wife has over her husband then a husband has over his wife.

In Islam, if a wife works, which is her right, her money is hers to dispose however she feels fit. The husband has no right to touch his wife’s money. Whereas the husband must still maintain his wife and pay all of the bills and provide for the family.

Before Islam, the Jahilya (ignorant) or pre-Islamic Arabs would bury their daughters alive upon birth because it was seen as a shame of they could not provide for their children. The daughters and wives did not have a right to inheritance. It was okay for men to marry and divorce women, and kill them as they saw fit. Islam prevented this. Islam gave women the rights to inheritance, to work, and the right to study. There has also been women that were the heads of Muslim countries.

Republicans love to attack Muslim women because Islam requires women to wear the hijab. However, where a Muslim woman feels liberated by wearing the hijab and are respected for being a human and for their intellect. In the United States, women are only respected for their bodies. We live in a society that sexualizes young girls from the age of 3 on up. This can be seen in the beauty pageants as well as any scan of stores for toddlers. There are even dolls such as Bratz that glamorize the clubbing lifestyle.

In response to Dr. Carson’s statement concerning LGBT rights, this is also not true. In Tunisia, I saw men wearing drag and homosexual men. Nobody said anything to them. In Tunisian culture, they believe that since they are born that way that they have a genetic defect and so they feel sorry for them because they can never have children.

In Iran, they are the second-leading country in the world that does sex change surgeries.

There is a Western agenda to push their values on the rest of the world. What might be seen as permissible in America such as gay marriage is not permissible in the Muslim world. Our Prophet said that any country that has allowed open homosexuality has all been destroyed. By trying to attack the Muslim world by saying it is not open to the LGBT community will be seen as fuel to cause Islamic groups like ISIS to say that the West wants to destroy Islamic culture by forcing them to allow same-sex marriage.

As a result, LGBT rights are not like they are in the West. If people are performing homosexual acts they must do them in private and not out in the public as it would be seen as corrupting the society. They want to prevent children from seeing this.

However this has nothing to do with American Muslims. Many Muslim-Americans view homosexuals as fellow human beings whose Constitutional rights must be protected. There is not one case where I am aware of where a Muslim refused to give a gay couple marriage licenses or to bake a wedding cake. However, a homosexual couple would be hard-pressed to find an imam willing to marry them because this is forbidden in Islam, and unlike Christianity, there is no compromise. Islam does not change due to the changing political climate.

The oldest Christian church in the world is in Damascus. I am not sure if it is safe due to the rise of ISIS. The oldest Christian church in Africa is in Tunisia. There are many Jewish communities in such places as Iran and Tunisia. Just recently, the UAE allowed for the Hindus to open up a temple in Dubai. The only two places in the world where non-Muslims are not allowed are in Mecca and Medina.

Christians are prevented from proselytizing due to the history between the Christians and Muslims. Christian missionaries were involved with the slave trade to sale Black African Muslims to the slave-traders in the name of Christianity then forced them to convert to Christianity. Even after the converted they were still kept as slaves.

The missionaries also go into poor countries and they will have food. They will tell the poor Muslims that, “We have this food but we will not give it to you unless you denounce Islam and become Christian”. They also will go to poor Muslim children with candy. The sweet candy will have an image of Jesus on it, the sour will have an image of Muhammad on it, they will then ask them, “Which candy is better? The Jesus candy or the Muhammad candy?’

When Dr. Carson said that a Muslim should not be the president because of Sharia, Sean Hannity defended him. He said that if a Muslim was to be president that he should, “denounce Quranic verses that advocate violence; denounce Prophet Muhammad; and denounce Sharia”. It is plain that according to these people that Muslims must no longer be a Muslim in order to be accepted into this society.

Any ayats or verses that speak about violence are about a specific situation. When the Qur’an says to find them where you kill them. It is speaking about a specific group of people that had a treaty with the Prophet Muhammad and the Muslims and then they broke the treaty. They gave a letter to the Prophet asking for him to send his closest and most educated of his companions to meet with them for the spirit of the treaty and to learn about Islam because they were interested in converting. They promised that they would be protected, that no harm would come to them.

The Prophet sent 70 of his closest companions. These people then cut the heads off of the Prophet’s companions. He cursed them for a month afterwards. However, after this ayat it clearly states that if they stop fighting you to stop fighting them and to not transgress limits because Allah does not love those that transgress limits.

Islam allows for the defense of one’s family, religion, and country. Every major religion has a just reason to fight in self-defense, Islam is no different. If an occupying force was to invade the USA, I would be the first to get weapons and to fight a Jihad against the occupying force. This is permissible.

When Hannity said to denounce our Prophet, that is blatantly an attack on Islam. When he said we must denounce Sharia, it is obvious that he does not know what Sharia is.

Sharia means the ‘Sacred law’. It is like a GPS system for self-control, similar to the Mormon’s Words of Wisdom. If a GPS system tells you to turn right then you turn right. If it tells you to turn left, then you turn left. If it tells you to turn right then you turn left, you will not reach your goal which is to go to heaven.

Part of Sharia is to give charity. Do they not want us to give charity? These states such as Kentucky that outlawed Sharia just made it illegal for Muslims to pray 5 times a day, which is a sharia.

People are scared because they hear about people having their hand cut off for theft. In actuality it is very rare for this to happen and in most Muslim countries it does not. This is only for big ticket items and Sharia allows for the family to come and pay back what was taken.

Because of Sharia, many American Muslim doctors have opened up free health clinics in the USA to help poor people in the inner-city. A Muslim organization just paid the water bill for many poor people in Detroit. The giving of charity is a major part of Sharia. Do they want to outlaw this?

Any Muslim should be very wary of having someone like Dr. Carson take care of their children when it is very obvious that he has a hate for the people that he is supposed to treat. Should someone like this be our POTUS?

Someone that so openly hates a part of the American people? Ben Carson is not fit for office.