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 "If there is a rabid dog running around your neighborhood, you're
probably not going to assume something good about that dog, Carson,
a front-runner in some opinion polls, said Thursday at a campaign
event in Mobile, Alabama.
"By the same token, we have to have in place screening mechanisms
that allow us to determine who the mad dogs are, quite frankly," the
retired neurosurgeon said, criticizing President Barack Obama's plan
to admit 10,000 Syrian refugees within a year.
Obama administration officials have emphasized the refugee vetting
process, which can take as long as two years.
 But Republican presidential candidates and dozens of Republican
governors have come out strongly against the refugee plan this week
following the deadly Islamic State attacks in Paris on Friday.
On Thursday, the U.S. House of Representatives, defying a veto
threat by Obama, overwhelmingly passed Republican-backed legislation
to intensify security screenings of Syrian refugees and suspend the
program to admit 10,000.
Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Washington-based Council on
American-Islamic relations, denounced Carson's comments as
"unconscionable," saying they point to Carson's "complete disregard"
for American Muslims.
It really is unconscionable that he would stoop to such levels in
smearing people who are fleeing violence and oppression, seeking a
better life. Something he, himself, would do if put in the same
circumstances, he said.
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Carson said, "Who are the people who want to come in here and hurt
us and want to destroy us? ... It is foolish for us to accept people
if we cannot have the appropriate type of screening."
Carson has called for Congress to cut off funding to programs used
to bring refugees into the country.
(Reporting by Alana Wise)
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