Washington : US National Security Adviser John Bolton’s new chief of staff has drawn scrutiny for his past work with a conservative think tank that has been accused of promoting anti-Muslim messages, the media reported.

Fred Fleitz, who joined the National Security Council this week, was an outspoken opponent of the Iran nuclear deal when he worked at the Centre for Security Policy, CNN reported.

Fleitz was one of more than a dozen authors of a 2015 report from the think tank that called for, among other things, using “shariah-adherent advocacy and practices as legal premises for deportation and stripping of American citizenship”.

The report also argued academic institutions that accept donations from “shariah-adherent individuals or governments” should be “discouraged” from promoting things like “interfaith dialogue” or “Muslim-Christian understanding”, because that effort “amounts to promoting shariah or civilisation jihadist agendas”.

In an interview in 2017, Fleitz also blamed “the failure to assimilate British Muslims” in the UK for a terror attack in London.

However, Sebastian Gorka, a former deputy assistant to President Donald Trump defended Fleitz’s past writings about Islam.

“Fred Fleitz is one of the few people since 9/11 who have been trying to speak truthfully about the global jihadi movement. He’s been pushing back on the political correctness that has gotten people killed,” Gorka had earlier told CNN.

—IANS