Rep. Amash Slams McCain for 'Allahu Akbar' Comments

On Friday, Rep. Justin Amash (R-MI) ripped Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) for his argument that when jihadists scream “Allahu Akbar” it is no different than Christians saying “Thank God.”

“Senator McCain’s response was completely ignorant and offensive. Good people, whether they’re Muslims, Christians, or Jews–don’t scream ‘Thank God’ when they kill people,” Amash said on Laura Ingraham’s radio program on Tuesday. “It’s completely outrageous that he would say such a thing.”

Amash did not hold back from criticizing House GOP leaders, either. Before any congressional hearings on the president’s proposed Syria military strike occurred, House Speaker John Boehner and Majority Leader Eric Cantor both announced they backed military intervention in Syria. Amash told Ingraham he believes this type of behavior is unacceptable and that there is popular opposition to it.

“At every town hall, every stop I’ve made, and I made 11 stops in two days this week so I could go out and hear the people’s voices on Syria, on every single stop I heard about how absurd it was our leadership was coming out in support of the president on this,” Amash said. “The American people don’t want this war.” 

“Our veterans are speaking out. Almost 100 percent of the veterans I spoke to, and I had a lot in the meetings, were against this war,” he claimed. “You had active-duty spouses, parents and you even had some active-duty members in our armed forces who are telling me, ‘Please do not go into this war. There’s no win for us here. If you launch these strikes, you’re just going to create a bigger mess. And we don’t need to be in this.'”

Amash said Boehner throwing his weight behind the Syria attack before any congressional hearings on the matter took place was a “mistake.”

“Our leadership didn’t come to us and say, ‘Hey, this is the position we’re going to take,'” Amash explained. “Our constituents have a very different position and if you’re the Speaker of the House, or the [Majority] Leader, and you’re going to take a position in support of the war which is contrary to what the vast majority of Americans believe and certainly the vast majority of Republicans, it might be nice to call up your conference, the GOP conference, and say, ‘Hey this is what we plan to do.'”