Sophie Tatum
CNN
WASHINGTON — (CNN) Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich on Thursday called for the U.S. to test every person with a Muslim background to see if they believe in Sharia law, and deport those who do.
“Let me be as blunt and direct as I can be. Western civilization is in a war. We should frankly test every person here who is of a Muslim background, and if they believe in Sharia, they should be deported,” Gingrich said in an interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity. “Sharia is incompatible with Western civilization. Modern Muslims who have given up Sharia, glad to have them as citizens. Perfectly happy to have them next door.”
His remarks came in light of a terror attack in Nice, France, where a large truck plowed through a crowd, killing as many as 80 people.
Gingrich followed up on his remarks via Twitter Friday morning.
“Amazing distortions of my interview on Hannity last night. I will do a lengthy Facebook live later this morning n the issue of sharia,” Gingirch tweeted. “We clearly need three patterns dealing with Islamist terrorism: for people seeking to get into America, those with green cards, for citizens.”
“How do we ascertain — how do you possibly ascertain whether or not that person really wants assimilation, really wants a new life, or whether or not they want to expand that caliphate, which is what we’re at war against?” Hannity asked Thursday.
“The first step is you have to ask them the questions,” Gingrich responded. “The second step is you have to monitor what they’re doing on the Internet. The third step is, let me be very clear, you have to monitor the mosques. I mean, if you’re not prepared to monitor the mosques, this whole thing is a joke. Where do you think the primary source of recruitment is? Where do you think the primary place of indoctrination is? You’ve got to look at the madrassas — if you’re a school which is teaching Sharia, you want to expel it from the country.”
The comments by Gingrich — who was a finalist to be Donald Trump’s running mate before the real estate mogul tapped Indiana Gov. Mike Pence on Thursday — are similar to ones made by Trump himself last fall, when he called for surveillance of “certain mosques” to counter terrorist threats.
Gingrich also said Thursday that calling Islam a “religion of peace” is “bologna.”
“It’s not that Islamists are necessarily evil, but they’re not necessarily a religion of peace,” Gingrich said.
Gingrich then turned his focus to President Barack Obama, citing many leading Democrats’ argument for stricter gun regulation laws after the Orlando terror attack, where 49 individuals where shot and killed inside a nightclub.
“I fully expect by tomorrow morning that President Obama will have rediscovered his left-wing roots and will give a press conference in which he’ll explain that the problem is too many trucks,” Gingrich said. “If only we had truck regulation, then we wouldn’t have problems like Nice because it is trucks that are dangerous. I mean that’s the exact analog to Orlando and just tells you how nuts the left wing in America is.”
Trump’s campaign manager Paul Manafort was asked to respond to Gingrich’s comments on CNN’s “New Day,” but said he didn’t know what Gingrich’s comments were and what the context was.
“The point is the country’s got serious problems dealing with terrorism,” Manafort said.
Gingrich was also asked about Trump’s decision to select Pence as his running mate. The former House speaker acknowledged it appeared the Indiana governor was the choice, but said, “I’ve not been officially told.”
The-CNN-Wire ™ & © 2016 Cable News Network, Inc., a Time Warner Company. All rights reserved. (Photo: CNN)
