In a March 2 interview, Mike Huckabee attacked President Obama for having a “different worldview and I think it is, in part, molded out of a very different experience. Most of us grew up going to Boy Scout meetings and, you know, our communities were filled with Rotary Clubs, not madrassas.”

As Media Matters noted at the time, Huckabee's reference was silly: Obama was born and raised for most of his childhood in Hawaii, which established Rotary Clubs and Boy Scouts in the early 20th century. Obama lived in Indonesia for several years and wrote that he participated in an Indonesian Boy Scout troop.

In a press release, Rotary International stated that General Secretary Ed Futa wrote a letter to Huckabee in response to his remarks. Futa agreed that Rotary has a strong presence in America, “but that's only part of the Rotary story, and to leave it at that might create the erroneous impression that Rotary's reach and impact are limited to the United States.”

Rotary International, while stressing that it “does not take sides in partisan debates,” added that “more than two thirds of Rotary's 1.2 million members now live outside of the United States” and Indonesia “is home to about 89 Rotary clubs.”

From Rotary's press release:

Rotary International General Secretary Ed Futa has contacted FOXNews personality Mike Huckabee to remind the former Arkansas governor that Rotary clubs -- established in the United States more than a century ago -- now thrive in more than 200 countries.

The letter comes in response to a statement made by Huckabee in a March 2 radio interview that most Americans “grew up in communities filled with Rotary clubs, not madrassas (Islamic seminaries),” during a critical assessment of President Barack Obama's “world view.” Obama spent a portion of his childhood in Indonesia, home to the world's largest Muslim population. It also is home to about 89 Rotary clubs.

While stressing that Rotary is a non-political humanitarian service organization that does not take sides in partisan debates, Futa said he wanted to clarify to Huckabee and the public that Rotary is an international institution that transcends the boundaries of any one country and welcomes as club members business and professional leaders representing all faiths, races and cultures.

In the letter emailed to Huckabee's FOXNews address March 8, Futa agreed that Rotary “has maintained a solid presence in thousands of U.S. communities, large and small,” since the organization was founded in Chicago in 1905. The United States has more than 7,850 Rotary clubs with a total membership of about 353,000 men and women, the most in the world.

“But that's only part of the Rotary story, and to leave it at that might create the erroneous impression that Rotary's reach and impact are limited to the United States,” Futa wrote, adding that more than two thirds of Rotary's 1.2 million members now live outside of the United States.

From Huckabee's March 2 interview, during which he referenced rotary clubs:

FISCHER: Well Governor, what got lost in all the shuffle is the legitimate point that you were making is that we may have a president who has some fundamentally anti-American ideas that may be rooted in a childhood where he had a father who was virulently anti-colonial. Hated the British - might have something to do with the President returning the bust of Winston Churchill back to England. You know, I was struck by the fact when he made his tour to Indonesia, he made a point of going to an Indonesian memorial that celebrated the victory of Indonesians over British troops - again, part of that anti-colonial thing. And so I'd like you to comment on that if you think, I mean, you seem to think there's some validity to the fact that there may be some fundamental anti-Americanism in this president.

HUCKABEE: Well, and that's exactly the point that I make in the book and I don't know why these reporters - maybe they can't read, I guess that's part of it because it's clearly spelled out and I'm quoting a British newspaper who really were expressing the outrage of the Brits over that bust being returned and the point was that they felt like that due to Obama's father and grandfather it could be that his version of and view about the Mau Mau Revolution was very different than most of the people who perhaps would grow up in the United States.

And I have said many times, publicly, that I do think he has a different worldview and I think it is, in part, molded out of a very different experience. Most of us grew up going to Boy Scout meetings and, you know, our communities were filled with Rotary Clubs, not madrassas. And I just do think that there is - again, I am not saying he's not a citizen, I've never said that, I've said the opposite. I've never said he's a Muslim. You know, if the reporters could read page one of my book, they could get all that, because that's the first thing I talk about on the very first page of the book. But they'd rather not read for themselves, and they'd rather just jump to a conclusion that absolutely isn't there. I wish they would ask, though, does this president have a different worldview than any other president in the history of the United States.