“Washington, D.C. – The leading Muslim civil liberties group in America called Monday for Republican Ben Carson to drop out of the presidential race after the retired neurosurgeon said this weekend that he doesn’t believe any Muslim should be president of the United States. Nihad Awad, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said the group is calling on Carson to “withdraw from the presidential race because he is unfit to lead, because his views are inconsistent with the United States Constitution.”

“Carson said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that he “would not advocate that we put a Muslim in charge of this nation. I absolutely would not agree with that.” He said he believed that Islam was “inconsistent with the values and principles of America” and inconsistent with the U.S. Constitution. He is currently a top contender for the GOP presidential nomination, taking third place with 14% of support in the latest CNN/ORC poll, released Sunday.

Speaking exclusively for Newslo, the retired neurosurgeon-turned-GOP-presidential-candidate stated that in addition to a Muslim candidate, he would also be “very much against a Jewish presidential candidate, as well as an atheist president, and most certainly I would not advocate that we put atheist-Jewish Bernie Sanders up for presidency either.”

Asked whether that means that, in his opinion, only a Christian president would be the right one for the United States, Carson replied: “Well, you know, there are many more religions in the world and especially in America than just the aforementioned ones. However, I do find that when it comes to our great nation, a Christian president is pretty much what we should stick with, since Obama obviously hasn’t done very well for us at all.”

“And as for Bernie Sanders,” Carson added, “I definitely do not believe that he would be a good choice, since the man himself can’t really decide if he’s Jewish or an atheist. So, you can imagine what a conundrum that would represent for Americans in general, let alone Christian or even Jewish ones. But anyway, I hear he’s gaining voters consistently, I think he’s even managed to tie with Hillary Clinton. Good for him, but unfortunately for him and fortunately for Americans nationwide, he’s not even close to where he needs to be. So, I think we’re safe for now.”