Arkansas Republican Party pulls funding for candidates who praised slavery

The Arkansas Republican Party said on Monday that it would no longer provide financial assistance to three candidates who wrote racially insensitive things like slavery was a "blessing in disguise" and all Muslims should be deported.

State Republican Party Chairman Doyle Webb told the Associated Press that the state party would no longer contribute to House candidate Charlie Fuqua, state Rep. Jon Hubbard or Rep. Loy Mauch.

The Arkansas Times last week that Hubbard had revealed some of this thoughts on slavery and racial integration in his book, "Letters to the Editor: Confessions of a Frustrated Conservative," including that "the institution of slavery that the black race has long believed to be an abomination upon its people may actually have been a blessing in disguise" and that school integration had meant that "the white students dropped to the level of black students."

In 2007 and 2009 letters, Mauch had called Abraham Lincoln a "war criminal" and asserted that "Jesus Christ did condone slavery."

Fuqua, a former Arkansas state representative, had called for deporting all Muslims from the U.S. in his 2011 book, "God's Law: The Only Political Solution."

Fuqua's book also a "death penalty for rebellioius children" to protect the "foundation of family discipline."

"There's just no plan to make any further financial contributions," Webb explained to the AP, but stopped short of asking any of the candidates to drop out of the race.

The state Republican Party chairman also defended Mauch's statements about slavery, saying they were "made from a historical perspective."

"While I hold a contrasting view of those events, I recognize Rep. Mauch's right to a different perspective of history," he insisted.