Jindal: U.S. 'Shouldn't be Blindly Following Europe' by Letting in Muslims Who Promote Sharia

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal said his proposal to restrict immigration of Muslims who promote sharia law isn’t religious discrimination but protecting the freedoms of all Americans.

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Jindal, a potential 2016 candidate, recently said “we shouldn’t tolerate those who want to come and try to impose some variant or some version of Sharia law.”

Explaining his position last night on Fox, Jindal stressed “we don’t discriminate against anybody of any religion and certainly there are many Muslims that are proud patriotic Americans. That’s great.”

But, he added, “it’s also true there are radical Muslims, Muslims that want to treat women as second-class citizens.”

“There are those who want to use our freedoms to undermine the freedoms of others. It makes no sense to let those types of folks come into our country. It is just common sense. The question I’ll specifically ask for example is would I be for allowing ISIS members to come to America? Why would I want to allow people who want to kill Americans to come to America?” Jindal said.

“In America, we say you have the right to believe what you want as long as you’re not harming others. So as long as you’re not trying to limit the freedoms of other people, we believe in the right of freedom of self-expression, religious liberty, freedom of speech, freedom of association. You don’t have the right to come here and say for example that you think women should be treated as second-class citizens. You don’t have the right to say others don’t have the same freedoms we give to you.”

The governor stressed that “we shouldn’t be blindly following Europe where you have second- and third-generation immigrants that don’t assimilate, don’t integrate, don’t consider themselves parts of that society.”

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“We’ve historically said you can’t come here in years past during the Cold war, if you come here to promote communism, if you’re coming here to undermine America’s foreign policy, if you’re supporting a group that’s an enemy of the United States,” Jindal said.

“…We don’t want people who are going to undermine freedoms of other people. If we don’t insist on that, we’re going to go the way of Europe. I think that’s a dangerous thing. Again, we believe in religious liberty, but it doesn’t mean you can use your freedoms to undermine the freedoms of other people.”

The Council on American-Islamic Relations accused Jindal of fearmongering on the campaign trail.

“Do we want to protect our country from people who want to do us harm? Absolutely. But you look at criminal activity, not thought,” said CAIR official Corey Saylor. “It’s an unfortunate reality that some politicians will pick on minorities rather than offer solutions to the economic and real national security issues our country faces.”

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