Scribbler for The New Republic Says Ben Carson Is Wrong to Believe That Islam Is "Not Consistent" With the U.S. Constitution

Actually, the scribbler prefers not to delve into the matter of whether or not Islam and the Constitution are consistent because, according to him,

Islam is neither consistent nor inconsistent with the Constitution; Islam is irrelevant to any discussion of the Constitution or rules of our governance. The same is true of Catholicism, Judaism, Buddhism, and every Protestant sect—even atheism, as the document does not once mention God.

Reality check: not only is Islam not irrelevant to any discussion of the Constitution, Islamic law, the sharia, is antithetical to the U.S. Constitution. Moreover, sharia is in competition with--and, in many part of the globe, at war with--the precepts that are set out in this American foundational document. So even if God isn't mentioned specifically, knowing that our freedom and human rights come from Him, not from the government, He is still understood to be there. However, when a Muslim shouts "Allahu Akbar!"--God is great--that individual is acknowledging something else, something entirely different. In that situation, what's being endorsed isn't the idea, as expressed in the U.S. Pledge of Allegiance, that America is "one nation, under God, with liberty and justice for all." It's the certainty that there is no real freedom unless one submits and pays obeisance to Allah and his law. (In other words, in the idea of "one planet, under Allah, with liberty and justice as sharia unpacks those concepts.")