As we’ve been discussing on the Corner today, Ben Carson is under fire for expressing that he would not support a Muslim candidate for president. My response to the question would be simple: “Which Muslim?”
I’ve never in my life voted for a faith. I’ve voted for candidates. And while faith certainly helps form candidates, faith identification can’t even begin to tell their entire political story. I’m Evangelical, but I’d walk over broken glass to vote for my conservative atheist friend and NR colleague Charlie Cooke rather than, say, a progressive Presbyterian – even though he or she shares aspects of my religious tradition. And while I’d never support Abdel Fattah el-Sisi for president for a host of reasons (beginning with the fact that he’s an Egyptian strongman), I prefer his ruthless approach to fighting jihad over our own Christian president’s pattern of half-measures and appeasement.
But there’s another virtue in asking “which Muslim?” Searching for the right answer to the question would quickly reveal the lack of prominent Muslim voices who are also articulate defenders of western civilization and American constitutional values. The Left and mainstream media (I’m being redundant) have consistently elevated Muslim critics of American life and values while giving little attention to those Muslim patriots who revere our traditions and have often fled to the United States specifically to reject the dysfunctional cultures that dominate the Middle East and much of the rest of the Muslim world. For the Left, the authentic Muslim is typically the Muslim who hates the West. And those people I wouldn’t want anywhere near the Oval Office – as occupants or even as guests.