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Washington • A former Colorado congressman supporting Donald Trump says that LDS Church leaders are suffering an "episode of moral incoherence" and that terrorists are laughing at Mormons' concern about the GOP nominee's proposed ban on Muslim immigration.

Former Rep. Tom Tancredo writes in Brietbart, a news outlet run by Trump's new campaign chief executive, that Mormons understand that "radical Islam" is the No. 1 enemy of religious freedom — even if their leaders do not.

"Probably 99 percent of Mormon citizens and voters can make that logical connection — even while their church leadership suffers an episode of moral incoherence," he wrote.

A hard-liner on illegal immigration, Tancredo has said he left the Republican Party because its leaders offered "pathetic excuses." He said in his Breitbart piece that Mormon leaders are misunderstanding the concept of religious freedom to suit their own interests, specifically "open borders and lax enforcement of immigration laws."

"ISIS leaders must be rolling in the mosque's aisles in uncontrolled laughter over the Mormon concern over Muslim immigration, considering that religious liberty is the first casualty wherever radical Islam and Sharia are enforced," Tancredo writes. He uses an acronym for the Islamic State group that has taken over parts of Syria and Iraq.

In December, after Trump called for an absolute ban on any Muslims entering the United States, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints published a 19th-century statement by Mormon founder Joseph Smith, defending the religious rights of faiths outside his own.

"If it has been demonstrated that I have been willing to die for a 'Mormon,' I am bold to declare before heaven that I am just as ready to die in defending the rights of a Presbyterian, a Baptist or a good man of any denomination," Smith said in 1843. "For the same principle which would trample upon the rights of the Latter-day Saints would trample upon the rights of the Roman Catholics, or of any other denomination who may be unpopular and too weak to defend themselves."

A church spokesman said then that the statement reflected the Salt Lake City-based faith's position on "the national conversation about protecting the rights of people to be here and worship as they choose."

A church representative did not respond Monday to a request for comment on Tancredo's Breitbart piece.

Trump has faced a backlash over his comments about Muslims, including from Mormons. LDS members also bristled at his questioning how devout 2012 GOP nominee Mitt Romney was in his LDS faith. Romney, on the other hand, has called Trump a "phony, a fraud."

Tancredo noted the support of Utah Gov. Gary Herbert, Utah GOP Chairman James Evans and Rep. Jason Chaffetz in noting that Mormons are on board with the Trump campaign.

"Indeed, most Mormon Republicans are lining up in support of Trump despite the frenzied effort to slander him as proposing religious persecution," Tancredo wrote.

Breitbart, run by newly named Trump campaign CEO Steve Bannon, published Tancredo's opinion Aug. 20.