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Photo Courtesy Associated PressMary Richards reporting
Utah Islamic leaders say Mitt Romney should just apologize and move on after his comments about Muslims, but Romney says he was misunderstood.
Some Utah Muslims say Romney shouldn't focus on religion as something to keep someone out of his cabinet.
"Romney would have been better served just to say that, ‘We would consider any qualified Americans,' and then that would put an end to this question," explained Dr. Iqbal Hossain with the Islamic Society of Greater Salt Lake.
Hossain says Romney himself speaks out against religious bias.
Romney says he only meant he wouldn't check off the boxes, so to speak, of certain religions and ethnicities for his cabinet. "It's not that I have to have a certain number of each different ethnic groups. Instead, I would choose people based upon their merits and their capabilities," Romney said.
A Muslim guest columnist for the Christian Science Monitor wrote that Romney told him he would not pick a Muslim for his cabinet because they represent a low percentage of the American population.
U.S. Muslim leaders say they would like to meet with Romney to discuss the comments.
