MOBILE, Ala. (AP) – Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson says blocking potential terrorists from entering the U.S. through the Syrian refugee program is akin to handling a rabid dog.

At a campaign stop in Alabama on Thursday, Carson says that wanting to get rid of a “mad dog” doesn’t mean you don’t love all dogs.

He says new restrictions wouldn’t mean America lacks compassion.

Carson is among the GOP hopefuls who have called for closing the nation’s borders to Syrian refugees. President Barack Obama has cast that position as un-American.

Carson also argues that Islamic State leaders are much more sophisticated than the al-Qaida operatives who carried out the 9/11 attacks.

Carson says those attackers just “had to be able to fly a couple of planes.”