Republican frontrunner Donald Trump today called for “a total and complete shutdown” of Muslims entering the US following the California massacre, the most divisive remarks yet during his presidential campaign drawing swift condemnation including from his rivals.
According to a statement issued by his campaign yesterday, Trump called for “a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country’s representatives can figure out what is going on.”
His stunning provocative remarks come just a day after Barack Obama called for rejecting religious tests for admission into the US, and Trump had joined leading Republican presidential candidates in lashing out at the President for not identifying radical Islam as the main threat.
The 69-year-old business tycoon-turned-White House aspirant’s comments are perhaps the most dramatic yet by a presidential candidate to last week’s shooting spree in California by a married Pakistani couple who the FBI said had been “radicalised for some time”.
“We have no choice,” Trump said repeating his pledge at a rally in South Carolina hours later to loud cheers, warning of more 9/11-style attacks if stern measures were not taken.
The campaign said that according to Pew Research, among others, there is great hatred towards Americans by large segments of the Muslim population.
Most recently, a poll from the Centre for Security Policy released data showing “25 per cent of those polled agreed that violence against Americans here in the United States is justified as a part of the global jihad” and 51 per cent of those polled, “agreed” that Muslims in America should have the choice of being governed according to Shariah.
“Without looking at the various polling data, it is obvious to anybody the hatred is beyond comprehension. Where this hatred comes from and why we will have to determine,” said Trump who was denounced after suggesting that some mosques should be closed and Muslims in the US monitored.
“Until we are able to determine and understand this problem and the dangerous threat it poses, our country cannot be the victims of horrendous attacks by people that believe only in Jihad, and have no sense of reason or respect for human life,” Trump said.
Trump was immediately slammed by other presidential candidates.
Top Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton denounced Trump’s statement as “reprehensible, prejudiced and divisive”.
“You don’t get it. This makes us less safe,” she tweeted.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) condemned Trump’s policy statement, as social media reacted with hashtags such as #racism, #fascism and #bigot trending heavily.
“Donald Trump is unhinged. His ‘policy’ proposals are not serious,” Republican presidential hopeful Jeb Bush said in a tweet.