Mike Huckabee's belief — which has no basis in fact — came in a new op-ed. | AP Photo Huckabee: Obama 'probably' wants to make Americans memorize the Quran

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee charged Monday that President Barack Obama's "new domestic terrorism plan probably requires Americans to memorize Koran verses."

That line — which has no basis in fact — came in a new op-ed the 2016 Republican presidential candidate penned for FoxNews.com.


"Why does the Obama administration express more outrage at conservatives than at radical Islamic terrorists? President Obama seems more interested in protecting the reputation of Islam than protecting the American people," Huckabee wrote in the op-ed, which his presidential campaign blasted out on Monday.

The op-ed follows a nationwide furor over whether to allow Syrian refugees to settle in the United States. The Obama administration and its allies have pushed back hard on efforts by lawmakers and Republican presidential candidates to bar Syrian refugees from entering the country, but the House passed a bill last week, with significant Democratic support, that will likely limit the number admitted.

Huckabee argued, despite an extensive U.S. vetting process that can take at least two years, that the administration is essentially letting in thousands of refugees "unchecked."

"Sadly, the Obama administration is moving full-steam-ahead with its idealistic and outright dangerous Syrian refugee relocation plan, which will resettle more than 10,000 unchecked, unscreened foreigners across America towns," Huckabee continued. "The FBI director has explicitly stated that we cannot conduct background checks on these people, yet nothing will stop Obama's obsession with pandering to the international community, even if it poses a direct threat to Americans. Europe's experiment with open borders collided with radical Islam, and the results are deadly. How has Obama not learned these lessons?"

Huckabee may have been referring to FBI Director James Comey's October testimony before the House Homeland Security Committee, in which he spoke broadly of the challenges in vetting Syrian refugees and said, "If someone has not made a ripple in the pond in Syria in a way that would get their identity or their interests reflected in our databases, we can query our data until the cows come home but nothing will show up because we have no record of that person."

Last week, however, Comey objected to the House bill, arguing that the bureau had adequate procedures in place to prevent terrorists from slipping into the country while posing as refugees. It would be "very, very difficult for us to say, as to anyone coming into the country, that there is zero risk," he allowed.