Rep. Steve King: ‘Jesus never ordered anyone killed’ like Mohammed

Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) is drawing a contrast between Islam and Christianity, saying the Prophet Mohammed differed from Jesus Christ in preaching violence toward non-believers.

“Jesus didn’t teach people to kill,” King told host Chris Hayes late Wednesday on MSNBC’s “All In.” “That’s not Jesus’s teachings.

{mosads}“Jesus never ordered anyone to be killed and he never raised his hand to injure anyone specifically,” King continued. “But Mohammed did, and there is a big difference in this.”

King was responding to Hayes’s suggestion that the man charged in the shooting at a Planned Parenthood facility in Colorado follows Christian ideology.

Robert Dear, 57, described himself as a “warrior for the babies” during a hearing Wednesday where he said he is “guilty” of carrying out the attack last month, which killed three people and wounded nine others. 

King said comparing radical Islam with extremism in other faiths is unfair.

“Well, if Jews in the name of their religion were killing Americans, I think it would be an appropriate comparison,” he said.

“But as far as I know, there is only one religion doing that, and it is a segment of the religion of Islam that’s doing that.” 

King said political correctness had made people “walk on eggshells” when discussing the link between Islam and terrorism but said that’s changing thanks to Donald Trump, who this week called for a temporary ban on Muslims entering the United States. 

“Donald Trump has opened this up wide,” King said of the GOP presidential front-runner.

“I hope we are able to shift this debate over to the Middle East and change this debate to how we help the people in their home countries rather than believing we can be their relief valve for the poverty and grief that’s in the world by bringing people here.”