Hillary Clinton: Move on, Muslims can be president in US
US presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has said Muslims are eligible to be president and those debating the matter should “move on.”
"Can a Muslim be president of the United States of America? In a word: Yes. Now let's move on," Clinton tweeted on Monday.
The Democratic front-runner’s remarks came in the wake of the controversy sparked by GOP presidential candidate Ben Carson, who said Sunday he would not support a Muslim for president.
“I would not advocate that we put a Muslim in charge of this nation,” Carson said on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” adding that he didn't think Islam was compatible with the US Constitution.
"We don't put people at the head of our country whose faith might interfere with them carrying out the duties of the constitution,” Carson maintained.
The retired neurosurgeon’s remarks provoked criticism from other presidential contenders, including Senator Ted Cruz who repudiated Carson, saying the Constitution declares "there shall be no religious test for public office."
Republican front-runner Donald Trump also said he would have no problem with a Muslim president.
Kentucky Senator Rand Paul, another GOP candidate, did not indicate he would have any objections to the idea of a Muslim in the White House.
“I think, it’s not so much what religion you are, it’s what you stand for. But I don’t think that we’re really anywhere near that - probably that is happening because they’re a small minority in our population,” he said in an interview with CBS on Sunday.
Carson's comments were also slammed by other Democrats other than Clinton.
"It's hard to understand what's so difficult about supporting an American citizen's right to run for president. Of course a Muslim, or any other American citizen, can run for president, end of story," Debbie Wasserman Schultz, chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee, said Sunday.
The controversy has prompted the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the leading Muslim civil liberties group in the US, to call on Carson to withdraw from the presidential race.
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