WASHINGTON — Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson said in an interview Sunday that Islam is antithetical to the Constitution, and he doesn’t believe that a Muslim should be elected president.
Carson, a devout Christian, says a president’s faith should matter to voters if it runs counter to the values and principles of America.
Responding to a question during an interview on NBC’s ‘‘Meet the Press,’’ he described the Islamic faith as inconsistent with the Constitution.
Carson’s comments drew strong criticism from the country’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, the Council on American-Islamic Relations.
‘‘To me this really means he is not qualified to be president of the United States,’’ said the group’s spokesman, Ibrahim Hooper. ‘‘You cannot hold these kinds of views and at the same time say you will represent all Americans, of all faiths and backgrounds.’’
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In a separate appearance on NBC, one of Carson’s rivals for the GOP nomination, Governor John Kasich of Ohio, was asked whether he would have a problem with a Muslim in the White House.
‘‘You’ve got to go through the rigors, and people will look at everything,’’ he said. “But, for me, the most important thing about being president is you have leadership skills, you know what you’re doing and you can help fix this country and raise this country. Those are the qualifications that matter to me.’’