Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Responds to Anti-Muslim Comments

Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson struck a chord with the Muslim community following his controversial remarks in an interview with Chuck Todd on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

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Carson was asked if he believed Islam was consistent with the constitution, and his remarks were less than becoming of a candidate for the leader of the free world.

“I would not advocate that we put a Muslim in charge of this nation,” Carson said. “I absolutely would not agree with that.”

Carson backed off his comments significantly today, and he tried to clarified his controversial remarks by saying he is more interested in a person’s policy than their faith at a news conference in Sharonville, Ohio.

“I don’t care what a person’s religion beliefs are or religious heritage is,” Carson said. “If they embrace our Constitution and are willing to place that above their religious beliefs, I have no problem with that.”

Basketball Hall-of-Famer and Lakers Legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar took exception with Carson’s anti-Muslim remarks in an interview with The Huffington Post’s Alyona Minkovski.

Lew Alcindor converted to Islam and changed his name to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar following the 1970-71 season in which Alcindor led the Milwaukee Bucks to their only NBA Championship.

His name translates to “noble, powerful servant” which Abdul-Jabbar prides himself on being since entering the league in 1969. The “Captain” has been at the forefront of multiple cultural, spiritual and civil rights movements.

Per HuffPost Live:

"People do not condemn all Christians for the acts of the group that calls themselves the Christian Knights or the Ku Klux Klan. We are intelligent enough to understand that that is not Christianity, and they do not represent Christianity. Well, these people over there in the Middle East that are so committed to murder and mayhem, they don’t represent Islam."

"And Dr. Carson is trying to say that American Muslims would support some of these atrocities that are being perpetrated in the Middle East, and that has not been the case. Most American Muslims are law-abiding and very happy to be here – and very happy to obey the laws and respect the Constitution. And they absolutely appreciate the fact that they have American citizenship. I don’t think that Mr. Carson has any idea, or knows, very many Muslims because if he did wouldn’t say the things that he’s saying."

Abdul-Jabbar is clearly disappointed with how little growth certain individuals have shown and the support those individuals receive specifically for their intolerance.

The United States is full of intelligent people who know radical groups do not represent an entire religion even if that section receives the majority of the attention.

It is irresponsible for members in the public eye to discriminate so freely and without consequence. It doesn’t help that type of ignorance is often times accepted as fact and not corrected.

Abdul-Jabbar also responded to Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump‘s handwritten note in which Trump laughed at Abdul-Jabbar’s Op-Ed piece in The Washington Post.

"That was like getting a note from the class bully. Who cares? He has his own views — he has his own facts. And that’s the problem. And I don’t agree with his facts, so I had to speak out on it."

"Some of these people are not fit to lead. Leaders have to be able to tell it like it is so that we can deal with the facts and get reasonable results from our efforts to make things better. And you can’t make things better when you have your own facts that don’t sustain reality. We have to make this a real thing… I think [people] are attracted to Donald because he is talking about their wish list. So they wish that there were no immigrants coming to America, but that’s not the case. And we have to deal with reality."

It’s ironic that Abdul-Jabbar was scheduled to talk about fiction and ended up giving his take on the reality of American politics.

If it wasn’t for the sad state of policy the United States is currently in, Abdul-Jabbar wouldn’t be asked to take the time and respond to anti-Muslim remarks by presidential candidates in the first place.

The bulk of the interview focused on Abdul-Jabbar’s latest project “Mycroft Holmes.” His mystery novel follows detective Sherlock Holmes’ brother in an effort to elicit an untold story.

The rest of the interview can be found here.

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