No evidence has surfaced to suggest that Rep. Andre Carson harbors radical or anti-American beliefs, but some particulars of his Islamic faith are "problematic," given the Indiana Democrat's
approaching appointment to the sensitive House Intelligence Committee, a watcher of the Islamic World told
Newsmax TV on Friday.
Timothy B. Furnish of Mahdiwatch.org told "MidPoint" host Ed Berliner that he is "perhaps not worried" about Carson's loyalties and his new access to classified congressional intelligence briefings at a time of global concern over anti-Western Islamism. "But perhaps a bit of caution would be in order," he said.
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U.S. Army veteran Furnish said that Carson's personal and professional biographies add up to a "mixed blessing": ample law enforcement and counter-terrorism experience on one hand; familial, if indirect, connections to Louis Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam on the other.
Farrakhan's pulpit history includes references to white people as "blue-eyed devils," and his brand of faith "is by most Muslims not considered to be mainstream Islam at all," said Furnish.
He said that while Carson's grandmother "seems to have been pretty familiar with Louis Farrakhan," Carson himself attended an Indiana mosque that represented a less confrontational, reform-minded Nation of Islam offshoot "which moved closer to mainstream Islam."
"What we will have to watch out for, however, will be, will he be honest about the Islamic issue and the fact that two thirds of the world’s terrorist groups are Muslims?" said Furnish. "Or will he simply play defense and sort of be an apologist?"
In 2012 remarks to the Islamic Circle of North America, Carson said that "America will never tap into educational innovation and ingenuity without looking at the model that we have in our madrassas, in our schools, where innovation is encouraged, where the foundation is the Quran,"
the Huffington Post reported.
He later clarified that he wasn't advocating a faith-based cirriculum in public education, only trying to highlight the academic successes that parochial schools of many religious persuasions have had in educating children.
Last month he backed out of a panel discussion in Chicago with Mazen Mokhtar, who federal authorities once identified as a webmaster and fundraiser for al-Qaida,
the Center for Security Policy reports.
But Furnish said it's premature to rule him out as an Intelligence Committee member.
"We have to wait and see with Mr. Carson and not jump to any conclusions," he said.