Rick Carlins, one of two state national directors for the RFA, described Razack as a "good man."  He still doesn't want Razack in Congress. Because he's Muslim.

"I talked to him for 20 minutes," Carlins said as he held his sign that said Islam and the Constitution Are Contradictions! “He professes to not really agree with Shari’a law. But he says he doesn’t want to be ostracized by his family because they have a long tradition of being Islam and Muslims. So if he’s afraid of being ostracized by his family, what is he going to do if he gets a position as my magistrate in Congress? He’s gonna submit to the Jihadis.”

“He has said he would not convert to Christianity,” added Jody Tagaris, the organization’s other state national director. “I mean, it’s contradictory to the Constitution, Shari’a law.”

The two also object to Razack's membership on the board of the Islamic Center of Orlando. “He will not renounce it. He won’t walk away from it,” Carlins said.

Razack, an Orlando neurosurgeon and law professor who came the the U.S. from India as a 3-year-old, appeared unfazed if surprised by the attention.

“It’s the first time I’ve ever been protested so that was new,” he quipped in his opening remarks during the forum, which drew some laughter from the crowd.

Interestingly, the protest has caused something of a split in the RFA. While the protesters denounced Islam outside, inside the auditorium, the RFA president wore a prominent Razack For Congress pin as the candidate's campaign manager.

“It’s heartbreaking when I see my own people out there protesting him,” said Lou Marin, the RFA president/campaign manager, noting that Razack himself has been an RFA member for more than six years. “This is not what we’re about. The founders wrote [the Constitution] so that all walks of life can come here and worship without persecution. What I’m seeing out here, we’re going back in time.”

Marin said that the protest had shades of John F. Kennedy’s presidential campaign. “They were worried about him being Catholic. Oh my God! The Pope’s gonna control him! No, he’s not. Or what about Mitt Romney? Oh! The president of the Mormon Church is gonna control him. No, he’s not.” Razack was the same, he said. “Nobody controls him. And he believes the way to get to heaven is through good deeds.”

After the forum, Razack spoke plainly about the blatant Islamophobia on display outside.

“They all told me they had nothing against me personally, but it’s just the fact that I was a Muslim, which completely goes against the First Amendment in our Constitution,” he said. “They say they uphold the Constitution, but yet they don’t feel it’s my right as a Muslim to run for office. Obviously that’s not what the Constitution says. Maybe they’re reading from some other constitution. But it’s definitely not our Constitution.”  

Then he pulled a slender travel copy of the U.S. Constitution from his suit jacket pocket. He said he showed the protesters Article 6 of the Constitution, which states that “no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.”

He hit that point again when asked during the forum which of the Founding Fathers was his favorite. Razack chose Thomas Jefferson for his influence on the First Amendment’s religious liberty and for promoting the right to take office without a religious litmus test under Article 6.

“We should be judged by our character and our competency, not what our religion is,” he told VoxPopuli. “Whether we’re Jewish, Hindu, Christian, Mormon, whatever. It doesn’t matter as long as you’re competent and you have character. Those are the real tests.”