Newt: Why does Obama 'behave the way that people would think' he's Muslim?

Newt: Why does Obama 'behave the way that people would think' he's Muslim?

POLITICO's Ginger Gibson reports:

Newt Gingrich insisted Friday that he has no questions about President Barack Obama’s Christian faith, but said he understands why some Americans might.

Asked about polls suggesting many in the public continue to think Obama is a Muslim, Gingrich said in Louisiana that he takes Obama “at his word” that he believes in Christianity.

Then he launched into a riff on how Obama’s policies are excessively sensitive to non-Christian, non-Jewish faiths, suggesting it could raise doubts for some about where the president’s impulses come from.

“Why does the president behave the way that people would think that [he’s Muslim]?” Gingrich said. “You have to ask, why would they believe that? It's not cause they're stupid. It's because they watch the kind of things I just described to you.”

Gingrich frequently rails against the administration for “anti-religious bigotry” and claims that he's acting against Christian organizations. In his stump speech, Gingrich bemoans Obama "apologizing" to Muslims and juxtaposes that with what he sees as an assault on the Catholic Church.

At a campaign stop in Lake Charles, La., earlier this week, an audience member declared that Obama "is a Muslim" and trying to ruin the country.

Gingrich was questioned afterward by a CNN reporter about why he didn't correct the man and responded that he thinks Obama is a Christian.

At his first news conference since before Super Tuesday, Gingrich fielded more questions about his continued insistence that the president is trying to undermine Christian institutions and values.

"I have said publicly several times that I believe Obama is a Christian," Gingrich told reporters. "He went to a Christian Church for over 20 years. He was listening to the sermons. The fact is I take him at his word but I think it is very bizarre that he is desperately concerned to apologize to Muslim religious fanatics while they are killing young Americans while at the same time going to war against the Catholic church and against every right to live Protestant organization in the country. I just think it's a very strange value system."

Accusing the administration of showing greater sensitivity to foreigners and non-Christians in their handling of sacred items, Gingrich jabbed: “They're just standard, left-wing values, which is as long as you're not Christian or Jewish we respect you.”