Ben Carson has said that it would not be appropriate for a Muslim to be president.  I instinctively disagreed with classifying any group of people as unsuited to be president, and I resolved to come up with my own list of qualified candidates.  Here's who I came up with:

1)

2)

3)

4)

5)

My apologies.  It seems I developed a sudden case of writer's block when trying to list Muslim candidates for president.  

I think the problem is that there are three kinds of Muslims, when there really should be four:

1) Muslims who actively support terrorism.  There are a lot of those.  There have to be.  There are thousands supporting al-Qaeda and ISIS in Iraq.  And Syria.  And the Taliban in Afghanistan.  And Pakistan.  And Boko Haram.  And the Muslims who commit terrorist acts in France.  And England, and the rest of Europe.  And America.  That's a lot of people.

2) Muslims who silently support terrorism.  That's an even greater number than #1 above.  Here's just a recent example: an Al Jazeera poll showing that 81% of respondents support the Islamic State.  Sixteen percent of French citizens support ISIS, which, given its popularity, is probably centered in the minority Muslim population, means a huge percentage of Arabs in France support it.

3) Muslims who silently oppose terrorism.  Not every Muslim supports terrorism.  There are many in Europe and America who don't, but they don't speak out.  Hard to tell them from category #2 above, since both are silent.

Missing from this is a category that should exist but does not.  The fourth category should be Muslims who, like category #3, also oppose terrorism, but who are leaders in actually speaking out against it.  Can you imagine if an imam were to speak out repeatedly against suicide bombers, and ISIS, and al-Qaeda, how quick the media would beat a path to his door?  How often would he be invited on CNN, or the Sunday shows?  He'd have his own talk show in a moment, to show the world that there are moderate Muslims.

But we haven't seen any such imam or Muslim political leader on TV because none exists.  The black community has started to have its own reformation, producing wonderful people like Alan Keyes and Ben Carson (but not Colin Powell), who realize that blaming others for the problems in their community isn't the answer.  The Hispanic community has been going through the same process, producing people like Ted Cruz, and, to a much lesser extent, Marco Rubio.

But you don't see leaders of the Islamic community standing up and speaking out about the problems in the Islamic world.  And because there are none, the only Muslims we see on TV are those committing the terrorist acts, and their apologists in organizations like CAIR.

That's why Americans are uncomfortable with the idea of a Muslim president: because there are not yet leaders among them who not only speak out about these problems, but embrace the idea of religious and social pluralism.  I don't agree with Ben Carson when he says in an absolute sense that Muslims are not suited to be president, but I agree that at present there are no leaders in that community who are remotely promising.

This article was written by Ed Straker, senior writer of NewsMachete.com, the conservative news site.