Explore World news articles - Webz.io’s Free Datasets

{
  "organizations": [],
  "uuid": "12d6ea0b61401bebfbc0550292f2c8eec384c8fd",
  "thread": {
    "social": {
      "gplus": {
        "shares": 0
      },
      "pinterest": {
        "shares": 0
      },
      "vk": {
        "shares": 0
      },
      "linkedin": {
        "shares": 0
      },
      "facebook": {
        "likes": 0,
        "shares": 0,
        "comments": 0
      },
      "stumbledupon": {
        "shares": 0
      }
    },
    "site_full": "www.theguardian.com",
    "main_image": "https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/005c3f366ddd6bbe1cce6502ca981b540896051a/0_59_4928_2958/master/4928.jpg?w=1200&q=85&auto=format&sharp=10&s=2d2d06fddb4404268f986ca98c094710",
    "site_section": "http://www.theguardian.com/us",
    "section_title": "Latest US news, world news, sports and opinion from the Guardian | theguardian.com | The Guardian",
    "url": "http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/sep/22/ben-carson-soften-stance-muslim-president-republican",
    "country": "GB",
    "title": "Republican Ben Carson seeks to soften stance on Muslim president | US news",
    "performance_score": 0,
    "site": "theguardian.com",
    "participants_count": 48,
    "title_full": "Republican Ben Carson seeks to soften stance on Muslim president | US news | The Guardian",
    "spam_score": 0,
    "site_type": "news",
    "published": "2015-09-23T01:14:00.000+03:00",
    "replies_count": 80,
    "uuid": "418e7d812de8a5e5b00d8dffa7b194a613e6ba45"
  },
  "author": "Ben Jacobs",
  "url": "http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/sep/22/ben-carson-soften-stance-muslim-president-republican#post-0",
  "ord_in_thread": 0,
  "title": "Republican Ben Carson seeks to soften stance on Muslim president | US news",
  "locations": [],
  "entities": {
    "persons": [],
    "locations": [],
    "organizations": []
  },
  "highlightText": "",
  "language": "english",
  "persons": [],
  "text": "Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson attempted to walk back his pronouncement that a Muslim should not be president in a press conference in Ohio on Tuesday. Carson has faced a firestorm of controversy since saying in an interview on NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday morning: “I would not advocate that we put a Muslim in charge of this nation.” Related: Ben Carson's anti-Muslim comments: what have the other candidates said? However, the former neurosurgeon – currently a leading candidate for the Republican nomination – insisted on Tuesday that his objection to a Muslim becoming president “has nothing to do with being Muslim”. “Anyone of any religious faith whatsoever, if they place the constitution above their religious beliefs” could serve as president, he said. On Monday night, Carson said in an interview with Fox News that he would be open to a moderate Muslim who denounced radical Islam becoming president. But he also said he stood by his original comments, saying that the US could not elect people “whose faith might interfere with carrying out the duties of the constitution”. That could equally apply to a Christian, he said. “If you’re a Christian and you’re running for president and you want to make this into a theocracy, I’m not going to support you,” Carson said. “I’m not going to advocate you being the president.” He added: “Now, if someone has a Muslim background and they’re willing to reject those tenets and to accept the way of life that we have, and clearly will swear to place our constitution above their religion, then, of course, they will be considered infidels and heretics, but at least I would then be quite willing to support them.” Also on Monday, Barry Bennett, Carson’s campaign manager, attempted to differentiate between radical Muslims and those whom he described as practicing “Islam-lite”. Bennett said: “I know there are a lot of other people who practice, I’ll call it Islam-lite. And that’s fine.” But he warned: “You have to separate yourself from the tenets of the harsher sect in order for him to consider voting for you. That’s what this is all about.” He also falsely claimed Islam called for non-Muslims to be killed. “I don’t think there’s any other religion that says that people of other religions have to be killed,” Bennett said. The verse often used to justify statements such as Bennett’s has been misconstrued to justify the killing of infidels, when in fact it justifies violence only against idolaters who continue to impose hostilities or a threat to Muslims. The intensifying political fallout has proved a distraction for the retired neurosurgeon as he tries to capitalize on recent momentum in the unruly Republican presidential race. But it also highlights a sentiment among voters in both parties who seem to agree with Carson’s reluctance to elect a Muslim to the nation’s highest office. Carson’s campaign reported strong fundraising and more than 100,000 new Facebook friends in the 24 hours after his initial comments on Meet the Press. Bennett told Associated Press on Monday: “While the left wing is huffing and puffing over it, Republican primary voters are with us at least 80-20. “People in Iowa particularly, are like: ‘Yeah! We’re not going to vote for a Muslim either’,” Bennett said. “I don’t mind the hubbub. It’s not hurting us, that’s for sure.” Carson, a devout Christian, is running just behind businessman Donald Trump among Republican voters in Iowa, whose caucuses will kick off the state-by-state nominating contests next February. Carson is drawing support among the large bloc of socially conservative evangelicals in the midwestern state. The head of the nation’s largest Muslim advocacy group called on Carson to drop out of the 2016 presidential contest during a Capitol Hill press conference on Monday, declaring him “unfit to lead because his views are in contradiction with the United States constitution”. “Not long ago, some people thought that a Catholic cannot be a president, an African American cannot be a president,” said Nihad Awad, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic relations. “They were wrong then, and they are wrong now.” He pointed out that article six of the US constitution states “no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States”. Some Republicans joined a chorus of Democrats condemning Carson’s statement. The South Carolina senator Lindsey Graham said on Sunday that the comment “shows that Dr Carson is not ready to be commander in chief”. The leading Democratic presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton, addressed the issue on Twitter: “Can a Muslim be president of the United States of America? In a word: Yes. Now let’s move on.” Fourteen years after Islamic extremists executed the deadliest terrorist attack in US history, a suspicious stance resonates with some voters despite the fact that – as the Democratic senator Harry Reid put it on Monday – Muslims “teach in our schools, fight in our military and serve in Congress”. America’s Muslim population is growing, according to a survey in May by the Pew Research Center, which found the group represented just under 1% of the US population. A June Gallup poll found that 54% of Republicans would not vote for a well-qualified Muslim nominee from their own party; 39% of independents and 27% of Democrats said the same. Additional reporting by Sabrina Siddiqui",
  "external_links": [
    "http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/ben-carson-muslim-islam-lite_560084b2e4b0fde8b0cf7fe2?u42f0f6r"
  ],
  "published": "2015-09-23T01:14:00.000+03:00",
  "crawled": "2015-09-22T20:35:07.321+03:00",
  "highlightTitle": ""
}