Asking Plain Questions

Editor’s Note: Tom Rose, one of the candidates who ran during the GOP nominating process for Tuesday’s special election, has written the below article on Democratic congressional candidate Andre Carson’s faith and the role of a candidate’s faith in politics.

By: Tom Rose

While both candidates for Tuesday’s special election to Congress have explained their positions on some important issues, there is a virtual media blackout preventing discussion of perhaps the most important and certainly most uncomfortable issue of this short campaign. That issue is religion.

Democrat Andre Carson is a recent convert to Islam. He proud of his faith and to his credit, appears both happy and willing to answer any questions the media asks him. The problem is that media isn’t asking any questions. Why not?

Is it because the media is worried that discussion of Carson’s Muslim faith would focus unfair attention upon a religious minority? Is it worried that asking him specific questions might sound too much like a constitutionally forbidden “religious test”? Neither explanation holds water since neither explanation prevented an aggressive, even belligerent focus on Mormonism during Mitt Romney’s recent presidential campaign.

Here is a thought. Maybe the list of murdered journalists, ransacked newspapers, torched embassies and whole countries subjected to crippling international pressures by millions of “aggrieved” Muslims has so intimidated even our local media that they now willingly impose upon themselves the very censorship that extremist Muslims demand when ever they are “offended”. Maybe the media showed none of the “sensitivity” to Mormons that it self righteously offers to Muslims during the Romney campaign because they did not fear violent outbursts of “Mormon Rage”?

Since many of the most prominent positions of influence and authority within the Muslim world are filled by people who openly call for the violent overthrow of the United States, the destruction of Western civilization and the establishment of a global Muslim caliphate, determining precisely where Mr. Carson stands vis-à-vis the leaders of his religion is not just a legitimate demand, it is an essential one. If we as voters are not entitled to ask Carson what role Islam plays in his thinking about public policy and national security, then when are we entitled to ask him?

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Can Mr. Carson point to any elements within normative Islam he thinks conflict with Western values? If so, is he prepared to publicly reject them? What does Carson think of the provisions within Islam that legalize that subjugation of women? Surely, he is prepared to call for Sharia to abolish human slavery?

What does Mr. Carson think of efforts with the Muslim American community to create legal protections for the establishment of Sharia courts for Muslims in the United States? This is hardly obscure. Just last year a much cited Ipsos poll found that 40% of British Muslims favored replacing English common law with Sharia law.

In Sharia ruled countries non-Muslims cannot defend themselves against Muslims in courts of law. Non-Muslims are not allowed to own land. In some Sharia states, including Saudi Arabia, practicing any religion other than Islam is a crime punishable by death. Just owning a Christian bible is against the law in Saudi Arabia. If Mr. Carson were to publicly call upon Saudi Arabia to legalize the practice of Christianity in the Kingdom, he could emerge as a great force for reform in Islam and win the support of millions of Christians. Will he?

Does Carson believe that American Muslims are entitled to legal protections against blasphemy? This is a prominent demand of The Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), — a Muslim group that openly defends terror suspects and groups accused of supporting terrorism– the leaders of which are raising money for Carson. If so, which press freedoms is Carson prepared to wipe out to insure that no Muslim reads, hears or watches something that offends him?

Carson is not the only one with questions to answer. There are plenty for us too. Are we really prepared to place the obligation never to offend any other value system above the right to defend our own? Are there any circumstances under which we would be prepared to openly reject the values of any non-Western culture, religion or tradition? Are there occasions when we would be justified in refusing to give ground in a confrontation against a non-western tradition that demands concessions from us?

The greatest irony of the media’s cowardly refusal to permit an open debate on topic of Andre Carson’s religious beliefs and identity is that it probably hurts Carson most of all. The media’s refusal to talk about it has only increased the firestorms of rumor and innuendo now racing about the district.

Because voters have been denied a public and proper debate, voters have lost a chance to hear a Muslim candidate talk about Islam while Carson himself has been deprived of an opportunity to present himself as someone prepared to confront the most dangerous elements of Islam from within the faith. Had he done so he could have turned an alleged political handicap into his greatest asset.

So far as it goes, Mr. Carson has revealed himself to be both proud and open about his Islamic faith. Can we say the same for ourselves?

We have a right to know what candidates for high office believe and from what sources they get their values. In demanding that our media ask these questions, Hoosier voters are not violating the rights of anyone. They are defending the rights of everyone.

Tom Rose lives in Indianapolis. He sought the Republican nomination to run in the 7th Congressional District special election, losing to Jon Elrod.