Newt Gingrich Calls For Deportation Test Of Every American With “Muslim Background” [VIDEO]

Politico reports:

Newt Gingrich, one of the final candidates vying to become Donald Trump’s running mate, called for testing “every person who is of a Muslim background” to determine whether they “believe in sharia” in response to Thursday’s attack in Nice, France.

Hours after Donald Trump declared that the attack in Nice constituted “war” against France and the United States, the former House speaker cast the struggle more broadly, saying: “Western civilization is in a war.”

Gingrich then suggested that those who failed a test and were found to be adherents of “sharia law” should be deported from the country. The highly charged proposal echoes Trump’s controversial idea to institute a religious test for immigrants entering the country “until we figure out what is going on.”

Reaction has been swift:

Newt Gingrich is a smarter man than to call for testing all Muslims in the United States to determine whether they adhere to Islamic “sharia law,” said Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.), one of only two Muslim members of Congress. Ellison on Friday said there is more than one form of sharia, noting that the interpretation of Islamic law “varies from time to time and from place to place.”

“In fact, fasting [during] Ramadan is sharia, by the way,” Ellison told MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” adding, “so that’s the problem with what Newt Gingrich is saying. He’s talking about violent attacks on innocent people. That is what we all must condemn. We have to engage everyone to stop this kind of thing. And that means whether you’re Muslim, Christian, Jew, whatever you are, we have to confront it.”