The chairman of the Republican Party in Russell County confirmed to AL.com on Wednesday that he and GOP Senate candidate Roy Moore are "anti-Muslim," adding that he didn't understand why his comment would be viewed as controversial.

Gary Head, a real estate broker and Alabama GOP official, told the Toronto Star's Daniel Dale in a story published earlier Wednesday, "I don't know anything [Moore] stands for that I'm not for. I'm anti-Muslim, too."

Moore is the Alabama Republican Party's nominee for the U.S. Senate after defeating incumbent Sen. Luther Strange in last night's special election runoff. He will face Democrat Doug Jones on Dec. 12. The former Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice is known for being a political firebrand who has called Islam a "false religion" and believes homosexuality should be illegal.

Head told AL.com in a phone call that the quote was accurate.

"What I told [Dale] is I believe in Jesus Christ myself and I don't have any problems with anybody's religion as long as it's Christian," he said. "I don't go along with the Muslim religion."

The Russell County GOP chairman said he didn't believe his remark was offensive.

"I don't know why that comment's such a big deal," Head said. "That's just my beliefs. I guess everybody's got their beliefs, just like guys doing the national anthem."

Dale "just asked me what I like about Roy Moore and, I told him, I said he took a stand on two things -- the Ten Commandments thing and the gay marriage thing - that I agree with," Head said, referring to the two issues that led to Moore's removal from the Alabama Supreme Court.

While Head said he wasn't misquoted, he said Dale didn't include the whole interview in the Star's report.

"That's why I normally don't talk to the media, because they just take bits and pieces of what you say and make it sound worse than what you said," he said. "He asked me what I thought people felt about Luther Strange losing [the election with] as much money as he spent. I told him, "I think the people like Luther to start with, but they resented the way he got [to the Senate] and then they resented the fact all the mudslinging he was doing. I like both [Moore and Strange] myself."

Alabama Republican Party Chairwoman Terry Lathan could not immediately be reached for comment after AL.com learned that Head was quoted in the Star's story.