Fox News host Mike Huckabee recently asserted that Muslims spend their holy day by praying at the Mosque and then acting “like uncorked animals.”

During his Monday radio show, Huckabee discussed the closing of U.S. embassies in the Middle East and said the he knew it was politically incorrect “to say anything unkind about Islam.”

“But can someone explain to me why it is that we tiptoe around a religion that promotes the most murderous mayhem on the planet in their so-called ‘holiest days’?” he asked. “You know, if you’ve kept up with the Middle East, you know that the most likely time to have an uprising of rock throwing and rioting comes on the day of prayer on Friday.”

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“So the Muslims will go to the mosque, and they will have their day of prayer, and they come out of there like uncorked animals — throwing rocks and burning cars.”

Huckabee insisted that he was “not saying all Muslims are radical and I am not saying that all Muslims are violent,” but “we as a government recognize that the most likely times for them to erupt in some type of terrorist activity, violent storming of an embassy, is on their holy days.”

The Fox News host went on to say that Christians never rioted on Christmas or Easter.

“Now, my point is — I mean do you ever say ‘Oh boy, it’s Christmas! Oh my gosh, these Christians are going to come out of that Christmas Eve service and they are going to Wal-Mart, and they are going to so rip that place apart, because you know what happens when they go in there and pray about Jesus. And they get out of there and they go straight to the mall, and they just, I mean they set fire to the place.’ I mean, when Christians get out of their Christmas services, about the worst thing they do is commit the sin of gluttony when they go to some Christmas dinner, be it at a restaurant or someone’s home,” Huckabee remarked.

“I mean, for most of us, the holiest days that come in the Christian world, particularly Christmas and Easter, I don’t really recall that the government has to issue a warning and say ‘Look Out! It’s Easter! Those Christians are coming. They’ll be throwing eggs all over town.'”

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And Huckabee said that he knew that he was going to get “hammered” for his comments: “So be it. I bring it up because it just doesn’t make sense to me.”

Update (4:00 p.m. ET): Ahmadiyya Muslim Community spokesperson Harris Zafar went on Huckabee’s show on Thursday to respond to his comments. Listen to the interview here.

Watch this video from The Mike Huckabee Show, broadcast Aug. 5, 2013.

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[Photo credit: Gage Skidmore]

(h/t: Think Progress)