"We need to be fairly relentless about defining who our enemies are," the former House speaker said. | Getty Gingrich calls for deportation tests of everyone with a 'Muslim background'

Newt Gingrich, one of the final candidates vying to become Donald Trump’s running mate, called for testing “every person who is of a Muslim background” to determine whether they “believe in sharia” in response to Thursday’s attack in Nice, France.

Hours after Donald Trump declared that the attack in Nice constituted “war” against France and the United States, the former House speaker cast the struggle more broadly, saying: “Western civilization is in a war.”


Gingrich then suggested that those who failed a test and were found to be adherents of “sharia law” should be deported from the country. The highly charged proposal echoes Trump’s controversial idea to institute a religious test for immigrants entering the country “until we figure out what is going on.”

Speaking to Fox News, Gingrich insinuated that such a test would weed out Islamic State sympathizers.

“We need to be fairly relentless about defining who our enemies are,” he said. “Anybody who goes on a website favoring ISIS, or Al Qaeda, or other terrorist groups, that should be a felony, and they should go to jail. Any organization which hosts such a website should be engaged in a felony. It should be closed down immediately.”

Gingrich also took sharp aim at President Barack Obama, arguing that his alleged reluctance to fight terrorism more aggressively is partly to blame for the Nice attack.

“This 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,” Gingrich said.

The vice-presidential hopeful also scoffed at any notion that the United States isn’t able to eradicate a group of ““medieval barbarians” such as ISIS.

“I am sick and tired of being told that the wealthiest, most powerful civilization in history, all of Western civilization, is helpless in the face of a group of medieval barbarians who, for example, recently burned 20 young women to death — burned them to death because they wouldn’t have sex with them,” he said.

Asked about Gingrich’s comments Friday morning on CNN, Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort said he hadn’t seen the exchange.

“Maybe he said more. I don’t know the context,” Manafort said. “Here is the point. The point is the country has serious problems dealing with terrorism, both domestic and international. Leadership is failing.

“And Donald Trump is going to take a holistic approach to how we focus on these things, and not going to allow disparate activities in the communities to define everything. Whether it is in the Muslim communities, Italian, my hometown, or other communities, he is saying we have to have leadership cognizant of the problems going on in the country, and we have to make sure that people coming into the country are known for who they are. Not just wholesale allowed in,” he continued.

Nick Gass contributed to this report.