It is obvious from the latest line of questioning that Islam is the millstone that the mainstream media wants to hang around Ben Carson’s neck. Journalists mean to kill him with Muhammad.

What they hoped would be another gotcha moment, in what is now a running series of attempts to snare him on this issue, Martha Raddatz of ABC’s “This Week” asked Carson said if he would consider Islam itself a probable cause to search the emails and calls of Syrian refugees in the United States.

“I personally don’t feel that way,” Carson said, “but I would certainly be willing to listen to somebody who had evidence to the contrary. I think that’s one of the problems, we get to our little corners, and we don’t want to listen to anybody.”

Then Carson said what every presidential candidate since 9/11 should have been saying, but which absolutely none of them have ever said before: “What we should be talking about is Islam and the tenets of Islam and where do they come from? They come from Sharia. They come from the Koran. They come from, you know, the life works and examples of Muhammad. They come from the fatwas, which is the writings of scholars. You know, and if you go back and you look at — what I would like for somebody to show me is an improved Islamic text that opposes Sharia.”

Carson is the first presidential candidate ever – or perhaps since Thomas Jefferson – to show a detailed knowledge of Islam and Sharia: “Right now,” he said about the possibility of a Muslim President, “when you have something that is against the rights of women, against the rights of gays, subjugates other religions and a host of things that are not compatible with our Constitution, why in fact would you take that chance?”

Brilliant. Contrast those clear and simple and accurate words to the Obama administration’s systematic and deliberate denial of the nature and reality of the jihad threat. The entire Obama response to the jihad is called “Countering Violent Extremism.” Note the glaring absence of any reference to Islam and jihad. Obama is trying to fight a war while pretending that the enemy is other than what he is, or even worse, is nameless, faceless, and bereft of ideology.

Contrary to the self-satisfied predictions of the naysayers even on the right, including revered conservative icons such as Charles Krauthammer and Bill O’Reilly, who said that Carson would suffer the consequences of his remarks and drop in the polls, Carson is actually surging, now tying Trump for first place according to the latest NBC/WSJ poll.

That is exactly what I predicted would happen. There is a complete dichotomy between the elites and the people. Carson struck a chord because he spoke the truth. Americans realized that at last – fourteen years after 9/11 – someone was finally being honest on this issue. And they rewarded him. Who can ignore Chattanooga and Garland, and the daily reports of jihad-related arrests in America? We’re not safe. I need an army of security just to leave my house, and I’m not the only one.

And it’s only going to get worse.

Carson should be the hero, not the hoaxster Ahmed Mohamed. Instead, the media makes a sainted martyr out of a Muslim teen who deliberately brought a clock that he knew looked like a bomb to school. Obama elevated him to statesman status. He has now gone to the UN and met with foreign dignitaries (notably the Prime Minister of Turkey, Ahmet Davutoglu) to discuss with them how racist Texans are. Contrast that to how they’re going after Carson like ISIS on Christians.

And Carly Fiorina, who bounced in the polls on the strength of media adulation following her medium-strong performance in the first debate, will fall precipitously now because of her clueless dhimmi remarks on Islam.

Trump is fumbling as badly as Fiorina, babbling about how he loves Muslims and will have one in his cabinet. This is consistent with his attacks on our free speech event that was attacked by jihadis in Garland, Texas. He was wrong then, and he is wrong now.

I predict that Ben Carson will soon overtake Trump in the polls, and not a moment too soon. America is waking up.

Pamela Geller is the President of the American Freedom Defense Initiative (AFDI), publisher of PamelaGeller.com and author of The Post-American Presidency: The Obama Administration’s War on America and Stop the Islamization of America: A Practical Guide to the Resistance. Follow her on Twitter here. Like her on Facebook here.