Update: Herman Cain Doubles Down on Claim That He Won’t Appoint Muslims to Cabinet

As The Blaze reported earlier today, possible 2012 GOP presidential candidate Herman Cain has been taking some heat for saying that he would not appoint any Muslims to his cabinet:

No, I will not [appoint a Muslim to my cabinet]. And here's why. There is this creeping attempt, there is this attempt to gradually ease Sharia law and the Muslim faith into our government. It does not belong in our government. This is what happened in Europe. And little by little, to try and be politically correct, they made this little change, they made this little change. And now they've got a social problem that they don't know what to do with hardly.

Appearing on Fox News' Neil Cavuto show today, Cain doubled down on this claim.

Here's what Cain said:

I did say no and here's why...I would have to have people totally committed to the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of this United States. And many of the Muslims – they are not totally dedicated to this country, they are not dedicated to our Constitution. Many of them are trying to force Sharia law on the people of this country.

He did back-peddle a little bit when he told Cavuto that he would consider appointing a Muslim to his cabinet, if that Muslim denounced the imposition of Shariah law in the U.S.

According to CNN, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) was outraged by Cain's remarks. CNN reports that to CAIR:

Cain's words show how "right wing" conservatives are currently engaging in Muslim bashing...."Even post 9/11 you didn't have this level of mainstreaming of anti-Muslim hate as you have now," said Ibrahim Hooper, National Communications Director for CAIR.

Cain also said on Fox News today that “being politically correct isn’t something I’m going to spend a whole lot of my time worrying about.”