President Barack Obama's widely-criticized analysis of Christian history and Islamic extremism reflect the education he received outside the United States, Kansas Republican Rep. Tim Huelskamp contends.
In an interview with radio hostess Laura Ingraham, Huelskamp asserts "[T]his was not a man educated in our American system."
"He learned all kinds of things wherever he was educated," the lawmaker says. "He spent time in Indonesia and their schools there and this is exactly what they taught there. It’s probably close to what he believes."
Last week's interview was posted by the news site
BuzzFeed on Monday.
The president riled critics with his speech earlier this month at the National Prayer Breakfast, where he compared the atrocities committed by the Islamic State (ISIS) to those of Christians "in the name of Christ."
"Unless we get on our high horse and think that this is unique to some other place, remember that during the Crusades and Inquisition, people committed terrible deeds in the name of Christ," Obama said at the Feb. 5 event. "In our home country, slavery and Jim Crow all too often was justified in the name of Christ."
"So it is not unique to one group or one religion," Obama said. "There is a tendency in us, a simple tendency that can pervert and distort our faith."
Obama missed the mark, Huelskamp insists, charging that unlike Christianity, the "underpinning of Islam is radical and it is violent."
"It is certainly what he believes and it’s totally wrong, and … people are dying out there because of Muslim terrorists, and unless we recognize that fact we are never going to defeat them," he tells Ingraham.
"But after 1,000 years of history Laura, there is no question that the unpinning of Islam is radical and it is violent. Which is completely different than our Christian history, and we have to understand that."
Huelskamp adds Islam was spread by "fire and sword and terror," while Christianity was spread by "saints and martyrs."
"The president surely has been told the history but he wants to rewrite it…" Huelskamp says. "But in his mind he said he wants to remake America. He promised the American people that he would do that, and he’s continued to do that. Whether it’s backing down from these terrorists, or … open our border up with amnesty. What is sad to me is those folks who want to become president of the United States who tend to agree with him on many of these things."
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