Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Speaks Out Against Ben Carson's Anti-Muslim Comments

Six-time NBA champion Kareem Abdul-Jabbar sat down with HuffPost Live on Monday and blasted Ben Carson's anti-Muslim comments , in which the 2016 GOP candidate questioned both Islamic values and the ability of Muslims to lead the United States in an interview with "Meet The Press."

Abdul-Jabbar, who converted to Islam when he was 24 , explained why we shouldn't condemn the entire religion for the actions of  a few:

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.

Adbul-Jabbar, who has been called a "voice of reason " among the cacophony of pundits weighing in on the election, also pointed out the problematic way Western society views Islam and contrasted it with the way it sees Christianity.

"People do not condemn all Christians for the acts of the group that calls themselves the Christian Knights or the Ku Klux Klan," he told host Alyona Minkovski  during a conversation about his new book, Mycroft Holmes . "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."

Watch HuffPost Live's full interview with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar . 

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