In the wake of the truck attack in Nice, France on 14 July when a driver rammed into people celebrating Bastille Day, former House speaker Newt Gingrich has demanded that the US start testing Muslims and deport those who supported Sharia law.

During an interview with Fox News, Gingrich attacked the American ruling class for not having the guts to take stronger action against Muslims and blamed them for the attack in southern France, wherein 84 people were killed. "This is the fault of Western elites who lack the guts to do what is right, to do what is necessary," he said and added, "We better rethink the rules, or we're going to lose the war."

Newt Gingrich
Former speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich, has demanded that mosques be monitored Win McNamee/Getty Images
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The possible choice as vice president for presumptive presidential nominee Donald Trump felt the need to set in place stricter rules to monitor activity of Muslims in the US. "You have to monitor the mosques," he said. "Where do you think the primary source of recruitment is? You've got to look at the madrassas (schools of Islam) – if you're a school which is teaching Sharia, you want to expel it from the country."

The former Georgia congressman told show host Sean Hannity that calling Islam a "religion of peace" was "bologna".

"It's not that Islamists are necessarily evil, but they're not necessarily a religion of peace," he opined.

What is Sharia law?

Sharia law refers to the law of Islam which regulates public behaviour, private behaviour and even private beliefs. While the law cannot be altered, imams are allowed to have their own interpretations of it.

Gingrich did not shy away from roping in Barack Obama into the diatribe as well. "I fully expect by tomorrow morning that President Obama will have rediscovered his left-wing roots and will give a press conference in which he'll explain that the problem is too many trucks," he said. "If only we had truck regulation, then we wouldn't have problems like Nice because it is trucks that are dangerous. I mean that's the exact analog to Orlando and just tells you how nuts the left wing in America is."

Watch the complete interview below: