Elections

Huckabee: Obama ‘probably’ wants Americans to learn Koran verses

By William Douglas

wdouglas@mcclatchydc.com

November 23, 2015 03:26 PM

Soldiers from the presidential guard patrol outside the Radisson Blu hotel in Bamako, Mali, Saturday, Nov. 21, 2015, in anticipation of the President's visit. Islamic extremists armed with guns and grenades stormed the luxury Radisson Blu hotel in Mali's capital Friday morning, and security forces worked to free guests floor by floor. Jerome Delay AP
WASHINGTON

Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee mocked the Obama administration’s anti-terrorism policy Monday in the wake of last week’s terrorist attack in Mali, saying the White House would rather espouse having Americans “memorize Koran verses” than deal with the problem head-on.

The former Arkansas Republican governor, in an op-ed piece for FoxNews.com, asked, “Why does the Obama administration express more outrage at conservatives than at radical Islamic terrorists?”

“President Obama seems more interested in protecting the reputation of Islam than protecting the American people,” Huckabee wrote.

He added: “After this attack in West Africa, Obama’s new domestic terrorism plan probably requires Americans to memorize Koran verses.”

The line was a variation of a Huckabee tweet Friday in which he said, “After today’s attack in #Mali, the Obama-approved domestic anti-terror plan: Give up your guns & memorize a Koran verse.”

November 20, 2015
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Hogan Gidley, a Huckabee senior communications adviser, said the governor concluded that Obama must be weighing having Americans learn Koran verses because “he’s doing nothing else” to combat recent terrorist acts. The gunmen in the Mali hotel attack forced hostages to recite Koran verses.

Huckabee blasted the White House for threatening to veto a bill the House of Representatives passed last week that would require the heads of the nation’s key national security agencies to certify that each Syrian and Iraqi refugee who resettles in the United States doesn’t pose a threat to the country.

The House acted after terrorist attacks in Paris killed at least 129 people. One of the alleged suspected reportedly entered Europe posing as a Syrian refugee.

“Obama’s politically-correct, press release foreign policy is a complete disaster, and it shouldn’t take another Paris or Mali for the cartoonish clowns in the administration to wake-up,” Huckabee wrote in the Fox News.com op-ed.

William Douglas: 202-383-6026, @williamgdouglas