AJC Decries Newt Gingrich Threat to Deport Muslims

NEW YORK, July 15, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- AJC decried the proposal made by former House Speaker Newt Gingrich to deport Muslims from the United States.

"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 a FOX news interview. "Modern Muslims who have given up Sharia, glad to have them as citizens," he added. Gingrich also called for the monitoring of mosques across the U.S.

"A blanket condemnation of Muslims, indeed of any group in the U.S., is disgraceful and fundamentally anti-American," said Jason Isaacson, AJC Associate Executive Director for Policy. "Promulgating misinformation about Islam, and scaremongering in a time of national anxiety, can have no place in the American political arena."

He added, "The United States and our democratic allies face the very real threat of radical Islamist terror, as each day's headlines remind us. But imposing religious tests on our fellow citizens, gutting the Constitution and overturning America's pluralist tradition, will not help us defeat this menace. In fact, an essential element of anti-radicalism strategy must be partnership with Muslim communities here and abroad – communities that overwhelmingly reject the violence and extremism of Islamist terrorists."

AJC has condemned in the strongest possible terms calls by Donald Trump to ban all Muslims from entering the U.S. and to register Muslims currently in the U.S.

SOURCE American Jewish Committee

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