Utah Muslims are perplexed by Mitt

After GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney apparently made contradictory statements about whether he'd appoint a Muslim to a Cabinet position, a local Muslim leader says "time will tell."

Romney has reportedly said both that he wouldn't consider a Muslim and that he wouldn't use religion as a deciding factor in making top-level appointments if he's elected.

Shuaib ud-Din of the Utah Islamic Center in Sandy said politicians often change their stands, so Romney's "clarification should be taken at face value."

That clarification came Tuesday, when Romney told reporters in Florida that he would choose Cabinet members "based on their merits. ... I'm open to having people of any faith, ethnic group."

However, at a private fund-raiser in Las Vegas earlier this month, Romney reportedly said: "Based on the numbers of American Muslims — as a percentage — in our population, I cannot see that a Cabinet position would be justified. But of course, I would imagine that Muslims could serve at lower levels of my administration," according to a Christian Science Monitor opinion piece written by Mansoor Ijaz, an American-born businessman of Pakistani heritage.

Din said he hoped that Romney's statement that he would consider candidates based on their merits is the one that accurately describes his position.

"Even if the numbers don't add up to Protestants or Catholics, they (Muslims) have a lot to give to the security and stability of this country," Din said. "You can't find a better person to combat terrorism than a Muslim, if he is qualified."

In his remarks on Tuesday, Romney said he was responding to the narrow question about whether he needed to have a Muslim in his Cabinet to combat radical Islamic jihad.

"I said no, I don't think you need a Muslim in the Cabinet to take on radical jihad any more than we needed a Japanese American to understand the threat that was coming from Japan or something of that nature," Romney said.

"Ijaz simply got it wrong," said Kirk Jowers, head of the University of Utah's Hinckley Institute of Politics and a Romney supporter who worked for the candidate as head of his former political action committee.

"I'm obviously biased," Jowers said, "but in my 13 years of knowing Mitt Romney and watching how he works, the comment attributed to him would be so completely out of character, it doesn't pass the straight-face test to me."