Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who is pursuing an ever-more unlikely bid for the presidency, responded to Friday’s terrorist attack in the West African nation of Mali on social media with a non sequitur about something President Obama never said. “After today’s attack in Mali, the Obama-approved domestic anti-terror plan: Give up your guns and memorize a Koran verse,” Huckabee wrote.

According to reports, the attackers in Mali freed some hostages who were able to recite verses from the Koran. Huckabee – or someone hired to manage his Facebook page – seems to delete all negative comments, but the response on the more unwieldy platform of Twitter was not positive.

Speaking to the media, Huckabee stated that retribution “is and should be” the only way America and Americans should respond to terrorism, “regardless of whether that means we should bomb entire cities or even countries.”

But for starters, the former governor of Arkansas argued, Americans should “only allow Muslims and refugees who can recite the Bible to enter the U.S.,” thus not only showing that they are serious about their intentions to become American citizens, but also “demonstrating that they value their new homeland to a degree far higher than their old one.”

“I think it’s only fair,” Huckabee said, adding, “And not only that; I believe that they will agree to such a condition. What’s more, I further believe that a significant number of Syrians who are fleeing from that part of the world have already memorized sections of the Bible, as well as the Talmud, and several other holy scriptures from various religions. I guess they must be thinking they need all the help they can get, and honestly, I can’t say I blame them for having such a mindset.”

Huckabee also added: “We can even take it a step further: those who take the time and effort to learn more than just a few lines could be rewarded by being settled in the more beautiful areas of our lovely country, whereas those who have only memorized a verse or two could be sent to, say, Alaska, or someplace like that. I mean, they must understand that we mean business here in America.”