2016 Republican presidential candidate Carly Fiorina is being criticized for allegedly praising Muslims in a speech that she delivered 14 years ago, just weeks after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

Last week, conservative commentator Bethany Blankley published excerpts from Fiorina's speech, titled "Technology, Business and Our Way of Life: What's Next," and attacked the former Hewlett-Packard CEO for celebrating ancient Islamic culture in an article on ChristianHeadlines.com

"Perhaps she should move to Saudi Arabia where women are prohibited from driving; or Iran, where women are prohibited from working," Blankley wrote, adding that the speech "reveals that Carly has been flying on a mystical magical carpet to nowhere for years."

The speech then picked up steam the next day when former Republican congresswoman and 2008 GOP presidential candidate Michele Bachmann tweeted about it.

In the Sept. 26, 2001, speech, Fiorina expressed concern over the safety of their HP colleagues "who are of Middle Eastern descent or who practice the Muslim religion here in the US and abroad." The 2016 hopeful also lauded the contributions of ancient Islamic civilization to modern American society, saying that the "gifts [of Muslim civilizations] are very much a part of our heritage."

"When other nations were afraid of ideas, [the Ottoman Empire] thrived on them, and kept them alive. When censors threatened to wipe out knowledge from past civilizations, this civilization kept the knowledge alive, and passed it on to others," Fiorina said.

"[The] Islamic world from the year 800 to 1600, which included the Ottoman Empire and the courts of Baghdad, Damascus and Cairo, and enlightened rulers like Suleiman the Magnificent ... contributed to our notions of tolerance and civic leadership," she continued.

She added that the Ottoman Empire "was driven more than anything, by invention. Its mathematicians created the algebra and algorithms that would enable the building of computers, and the creation of encryption." America's technology industry "would not exist without the contributions of Arab mathematicians."