Republican Candidates Express Concerns About Muslims In U.S. After Paris Terrorism

The New York Times reported yesterday on statements by Republican presidential candidates reflecting a growing suspicion of Muslims after the recent terrorism in Paris:

[Donald] Trump, who said last month that he would be open to shutting down mosques as part of the fight against Islamic State militants, reiterated on Monday that the idea should be “studied.”

“I would hate it do it but it’s something that you’re going to have to strongly consider because some of the ideas and some of the hatred, the absolute hatred, is coming from these areas”....

Ben Carson ... called on Congress to defund its program to give safe passage to Syrian refugees. The retired neurosurgeon also suggested....  “I believe that we need to put a lot more pressure on the clerics, the imams, to make a very distinct line between what ISIS, ISIL, the radical Islamic jihadists are doing, and what traditional Islam is about”....

Jeb Bush ... also expressed concern about refugees from the Middle East entering the United States and said ... Christians and Muslims who are fleeing Syria should be treated differently. “We should focus our efforts as it relates to refugees for the Christians that are being slaughtered,” Mr. Bush said.

At a news conference, President Obama particularly criticized suggestions that there should be a religious test for which refugees will be admitted.

Jeb Bush Appeals To Conservative Christians At Liberty University

On Saturday, likely Presidential contender Jeb Bush delivered the commencement address at Liberty University. (Video of full remarks). As reported by AP, Bush, a convert to Catholicism, used the speech to make a vigorous defense of Christianity and of religious freedom to religious conservatives, saying in part: "How strange, in our own time, to hear Christianity spoken of as some sort of backward and oppressive force."