Gingrich: ‘You Have To Monitor The Mosques’

Former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich said the U.S. should deport all Muslims who support Sharia law.

“Let me be as blunt and direct as I can be. Western civilization is in a war,” Gingrich told Fox News, according to CNN. “We should frankly test every person here who is of a Muslim background, and if they believe in Sharia, they should be deported.”

“Sharia is incompatible with Western civilization,” added Gingrich. “Modern Muslims who have given up Sharia, glad to have them as citizens. Perfectly happy to have them next door.”

“This is the fault of Western elites who lack the guts to do what is right, to do what is necessary,” Gingrich said, reported The Washington Times. “We better rethink the rules, or we’re going to lose the war.”

Gingrich even suggested that all people with family ties to Islam should be interrogated.

“You have to monitor the mosques,” said Gingrich. “Where do you think the primary source of recruitment is?”

Omar Suleiman, a popular Muslim scholar in Dallas, spoke out against Gingrich’s characterization of his religion. Writing on Facebook, he said the media uses terms like “loner” and “creepy” when describing white people who do mass shootings and other violent crimes. But when it comes to Muslims, the media tends to blame a religion.

Oleiman wrote in a Facebook post:

Forget that the videos showed Muslim victims as well, and that this guy clearly had nothing to do with his supposed faith or a Mosque. That’s not juicy enough. It doesn’t fit [the media’s] narrative. They want more hatred and blood. Dare I say it, they are apparently far more driven by ideology than this attacker and so many more. I hereby blame them for every mass murderer that shares their ethnicity and faith because they continue to radicalize bigots from the pulpit of Fox news.

He added: “Newt Gingrich, I’ll make your job easier for you: I believe in every single tenet of my faith. Because of that, I speak against extremists overseas and extremists like you and the fraud running for President. You can try to deport me now.”

Sources: The Washington Times, CNN, Omar Suleiman​/Facebook / Photo credit: Gage Skidmore/Flickr