Mitt Romney, the presidential candidate most disadvantaged by his personal religious faith, said earlier this month that "based on the numbers of American Muslims [as a percentage] in our population, I cannot see that a cabinet position would be justified."
"But of course," Romney continued. "I would imagine that Muslims could serve at lower levels of my administration."
You can read all about Romney's remarks today's Christian Science Monitor, in a not-to-be-missed op-ed by Mansoor Ijaz, a Muslim investor who asked Romney about Muslim appointees at a fundraiser earlier this month. Here's the Romney team's response.
Ijaz does a perfectly good job refuting Romney himself, so God-o-Meter will only state the obvious. How can a presidential candidate whose Mormon faith accounts for just 2-percent of the American population rule out a Muslim in his cabinet on the basis that Islam has too few American adherents?
From the Christian Science Monitor:
Romney, whose Mormon faith has become the subject of heated debate in Republican caucuses, wants America to be blind to his religious beliefs and judge him on merit instead. Yet he seems to accept excluding Muslims because of their religion, claiming they're too much of a minority for a post in high-level policymaking. More ironic, that Islamic heritage is what qualifies them to best engage America's Arab and Muslim communities and to help deter Islamist threats.
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I guess Mitt wet his finger and held it up to see which way the wind was blowing, and decided to play to the sentiments of those who fear Muslims. A shame.
I believe we have reason to fear radical Islam, but we must constantly distinguish between radical Muslims or Islamists and moderate Muslims (of which, I believe, there are many, even if they are far too silent).
Mitt blew an opportunity to make that distinction, which could apply equally to his own faith. Extremist polygamists like Warren Jeffs don't represent mainstream Mormons; neither do Islamists like Tariq Ramadan represent the mainstream Muslim community even though they might claim to do so.
(I'm not comparing Ramadan to Jeffs completely, Jeffs is a criminal, but Ramadan does have some extremist beliefs even if he does come across as a harmless professor from Switzerland -- that's why he was denied entrance to the United States.)
I'm shocked that he said this at a fundraiser. I wonder if this was before or after he took the guys money.
TrueHawk,
I am aghasted when you westerners always charged that Prophet Muhammad was the founder of Islam. He was not. To us the first Muslim was Adam, even Christ was also a Muslim.
I am more aggrieved when some of you make a similitude of Mormon (Christianity) belief with Islam. The two are of no comparison. I have a nose you have a nose but I am not a Western.
This age is an age of information. Christ himself is never a founder of Christianity. Historically, others called you a Christian and you accepted it.
No offence intended, just to set the record right.
Good points, AlHaj, that Christ was not a Christian, and Muhammed didn't come to found a new religion, either, but to return people to what he regarded as the true religion.
However, the founders of Mormonism were influenced by Islam, so the similarities between the two faiths is not accidental, but intentional (on the part of the founders of Mormonism).
Until there is a video or recording of the exact details of this conversation between Mitt Romney and Ijaz, this story is suspect. It appears that Mr. Ijaz may have a hidden agenda. Latter-day Saints have been working with Muslims for years as friends together on numerous humanitarian projects throughout the world. It is possible for honest people of different faiths to work together for the good of mankind. However, it is a shame that the political process can bring out the worst of man's intentions.
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