Newt Gingrich, the former House speaker and close ally of Donald Trump, has caused outrage by demanding that all Muslims who believe in sharia law should be expelled from the US.

Responding to the terrorist attack in Nice, France, that left at least 84 people dead, Gingrich said: “Western civilisation is in a war. We should frankly test every person here who is of a Muslim background and if they believe in sharia they should be deported.”

In remarks on Friday, President Obama called such suggestions “repugnant”.

Gingrich was interviewed by Fox News’s Sean Hannity before Trump officially announced that he had been overlooked as presidential running mate in favour of Indiana governor Mike Pence.



Trump told the same channel that he would seek a declaration of war from Congress against Islamic State – which has not yet claimed the Nice attack or been linked to it by investigators. His rival, Hillary Clinton, called for better intelligence gathering about the group. But Gingrich went further than anyone with his call for a religious test.

“Sharia is incompatible with western civilisation,” he said. “Modern Muslims who have given up sharia, glad to have them as citizens. Perfectly happy to have them next door.”

The former Georgia congressman claimed that the latest atrocity in Nice, which killed 10 children, is “the fault of western elites who lack the guts to do what is right, to do what is necessary, and to tell us the truth, and that starts with Barack Obama”. He suggested that mosques in America should be monitored.

The comments were swiftly condemned.

Obama said that “in the wake of last night’s attack we’ve heard more suggestions that Muslims in America” be targeted for tests, exclusion and even expulsion.

“The very suggestion is repugnant and an affront to everything that we stand for as Americans,” he said.

Josh Earnest, the White House press secretary, noted that America had been founded on the principle of religious freedom.

“That is a principle enshrined in our constitution and one that the president believes is worth protecting,” he said, criticising Gingrich’s rhetoric as “un-American by its very definition”.

Earnest added: “This is also the very worst possible time for leaders to suggest that Americans should turn on one another. That’s exactly what the terrorists would like us to do.”



Democrat Keith Ellison of Minnesota, co-chair of the congressional progressive caucus, told MSNBC’s Morning Joe: “He does know better. That’s the sad thing about Newt Gingrich. He’s a very smart man, it’s just calculating, pandering, and it’s really sad.”



Nihad Awad, national executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, added: “When former House speaker Newt Gingrich suggests that American Muslims be subjected to an Inquisition-style religious test and then expelled from their homes and nation, he plays into the hands of terror recruiters and betrays the American values he purports to uphold.”

Others put Gingrich’s comments in the context of what, at the time, were his fast dwindling hopes of securing the vice-presidential nomination. Conservative commentator Bill Kristol tweeted: “Newt is so distraught at being passed over for VP by Trump that he’s saying kooky stuff even Trump doesn’t say.”

Dan Amira, a writer on Comedy Central’s The Daily Show, tweeted: “The Newt thing is a perfect example of why he’s a bad VP pick. Trump has enough trouble defending the things that come out of his own mouth.”

Trump himself was accused by some of undermining his claim to decisive leadership, first by dithering over the running mate selection, then by postponing a press conference to announce it because of the Nice atrocity, implying that he was allowing foreign terrorists to dictate his agenda. He named Pence in a tweet on Friday instead.

Not for the first time in the election campaign, a terrorist attack highlighted the opposing instincts and worldviews of Trump and Clinton.

Fox News’s Bill O’Reilly asked the Republican if he would seek a declaration of war from Congress against Islamic State. Trump replied: “I would, I would. This is war. If you look at it, this is war coming from all different parts.”

He emphasised that “we have to be tough” and said the US should reverse its decision to allow Syrian refugees into the country. “You know, in the old days, we would have uniforms, you knew what you were fighting. We are allowing people into our country who we have no idea where they are, where they’re from, who they are, they have no paperwork, they have no documentation, in many cases.”

Syrian refugees entering the US are the most heavily vetted group of people currently allowed to enter the country, according to the state department.

Later Clinton, appearing on CNN, told Anderson Cooper it was “clear” that the US is at war with terrorist groups, but it “was a very different kind of war”. She added: “They would love to draw the United States into a ground war in Syria. I would be very focused on the intelligence surge. I would be very focused on working with our partners and allies and intensify our efforts against the ideologues that peddle radical jihadism online.”

Cooper asked the former secretary of state if the US was at war with “radical Islam” – a phrase Trump prefers but that both Clinton and Obama have sought to avoid, fearing its inflammatory potential. Walking a semantic tightrope, she replied carefully: “We’re at war against radical jihadists who use Islam to recruit and radicalise others in order to pursue their evil agenda.

“It’s not so important what we call these people as what we do about them, and I think back to our success in getting [Osama] bin Laden, it was important that we built the case, we got the information and the president ordered the raid.”

Pence also issued a statement on the attack, which he said was “a horrific reminder of the threat facing western civilisation”. He said: “As we mourn with the people of France, we must resolve to bring justice all those responsible and defeat this enemy of civilisation at its source.”