Jefferson County Sheriff David Stanko took down his personal Facebook page Monday afternoon after dozens of people posted comments about a link he had shared about Muslims ordering Christians to convert to Islam.

Some of those commenting went so far as to "block" or "de-friend" Stanko because they said they felt Stanko was saying that Islam was evil.

Stanko, who acknowledged his strong Christian faith when he campaigned for Jefferson County sheriff in 2014, said Monday that he hadn't read all of the social media comments because they are negative. He defended what he had written.

"It has nothing to do with Islam," he said of what he felt he was responding to, which was a posting from a site called shoebat.com that implied Muslims in Aleppo, Syria had taken 12 Christians and ordered them to convert to Islam or face being beheaded.

On Oct. 16, Paul Rice of Port Townsend shared screenshots of Stanko's original Oct. 15 Facebook post and a few of the comments made on that post. One of those comments was by Alex Mintz, a retired Jefferson County Sheriff's deputy, and a friend of Stanko's on Facebook. He wrote, "This isn't a religion based on the Judeo-Christian God, but one surely spawned by Satan, This is the heart of evil, not peace."

According to the screenshot showing Mintz's comment, Stanko responded to Mintz, writing "Smen," then corrected his spelling to say, "Amen it is evil."

The original article posting from Shoebat.com from October 2015 talks about Christian women being raped in front of other Christians and then Christians being crucified and others being beheaded as they cry out "Jesus."

The author of that was Theodore Shoebat. Another man, Walid Shoebat, has been taken to task by CNN's Anderson Cooper as a "fraud."

The screenshots Rice shared generated numerous comments, conversation threads, and over 50 shares.

Although Stanko said he hadn't read all the social media comments, Stanko had posted a note to one comment on Rice's thread that said his comments meant that "Christians will always show Christ and be firm in their faith has nothing to do with anything but courage to stand for your beliefs. Nothing else!"

He continued, "Sad people read into this. My comment is stand firm and do not bend when faced with adversity!! Nothing more. Come see me personally to discuss I am always available. Stand firm in what you believe. Nothing more/nothing less Nothing less than truth. Has nothing to do with religion..."

Asked Monday to explain what he meant, Stanko said, "The only comment that I made is that I don't know if I would have the fortitude to not deny my faith if someone wanted to cut my head off." He made the comment several times.

He said his comments had nothing to do with Islam and that he was not saying Islam was evil.

"It has nothing to do with Islam. It has nothing to do with the sheriff's office. It has nothing to do with religion, creed ... it's 'would I or anyone have the fortitude to not disavow" our faith if faced with death."

Asked what he thought of the comments that were posted that he had seen, Stanko said, "Opinions are like noses. Everyone has one."

Asked if he had any issues with Muslims, he said, "I've never had any problem with any religion. I come from a southern California environment."

When read a comment from an attorney, Sam Feinson, of Port Townsend – who wrote Sunday morning: "We were Facebook friends before he posted this. It's probably the first time I've done this, but I had to just block Stanko outright. Engaging wasn't going to go anywhere pretty" – Stanko said if someone wants to read more into his comments, that's up to them.

After the telephone interview Monday afternoon with Stanko, the Leader reporter went back to the Facebook page to his personal page to review comments. Stanko had taken down his Facebook page.

Threads of the posts, however, are still on other people's Facebook pages.

One woman wrote that Stanko is in a "position of great power in our county" and that it's important for his constituents to know where he stands in matters like this."

Bob Triggs wrote, "Trial by internet."

Steph Anderson wrote, "Wow. Time for a big time apology, Stanko.

Rick Dennison, "Are you kidding me? This is our sheriff! What ignorance! We should be ashamed that he was elected. I will remember this at re-election time."

Don and Sylvia White responded Sunday by sending a letter to the Leader saying, "How can you uphold the law in our diverse nation and in this county. What are we to think might happen if you arrested a Muslim in our county? Will you treat that person differently because of your beliefs? Or because of that person's beliefs? This type of prejudice makes all your arrests suspect," they wrote.

And on Tuesday, Stanko said he had taken down his Facebook page and plans to take a social media break.

"I'm going to redo my Facebook page just for my family. I've only been on it for two months," he said, acknowledging that during his campaign for office someone else managed his Facebook page.