Story highlights The Texas senator held a "Rally for Religious Liberty" at Bob Jones University

Cruz courts evangelicals in South Carolina, a key group if he's to win the nomination

Greenville, South Carolina (CNN) Ted Cruz used the backdrop of the terror attacks in Paris as the latest evidence that Christians are under siege, making a pitch on Saturday to evangelicals here that tied together his take-no-prisoners foreign policy with his faith-driven domestic agenda.

The Texas Republican, kicking off his most extensive trip yet in South Carolina, had planned for a month a large, highly-produced "Rally for Religious Liberty" that mirrored a similar event this summer in Iowa.

But Friday's attacks in France recalibrated Cruz's message and its overall tone: He began the event with a lengthy moment of silence, and Cruz spent nearly as much time discussing the perils of "radical Islamic terrorism" as he did government persecution of Christian merchants and educators.

"Right now as we speak, it is persecuting Christians. It is persecuting Jews. It's even persecuting fellow Muslims," Cruz said of Islamic extremists, as part of a prayer at Bob Jones University, a prominent Christian school. "We ask for unity for the people of America, and we ask finally, that you bless this gathering in celebration of the liberty to worship you with all of our hearts, minds and souls."

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