US presidential candidate Donald Trump’s support for registering US Muslims in a database drew criticism on Friday from rival US Republicans and US presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton, amid bursts of controversial rhetoric from US Republican candidates.
Trump, leading the polls for the US Republican nomination, has made several controversial remarks about Muslims and Syrian refugees in the wake of last week’s attacks in Paris claimed by the Islamic State.
Trump was asked by NBC News on Thursday whether he would support creating a database system to track Muslims.
Photo: EPA
“I would certainly implement that. Absolutely,” Trump told the network at a campaign stop in Iowa.
“There should be a lot of systems, beyond databases,” he said.
As to how he would get Muslims registered, he said it could be done at “different places,” not just mosques.
“It would be just good management,” he said.
Trump was later asked whether there was a difference between requiring Muslims to register today and Jews registering with Germany’s Nazis in the 1930s.
“You tell me,” Trump said.
Clinton slammed Trump’s remarks saying they were “shocking rhetoric.”
“It should be denounced by all seeking to lead this country,” she wrote on Twitter.
US presidental candidate Jeb Bush, who has suggested Christian refugees should be prioritized over Muslims, said that Americans do not have to abandon their values to fight extremism.
“You talk about internment, you talk about closing mosques, you talk about registering people, and that’s just wrong,” Bush told CNBC on Friday.
“That’s not strength, that’s weakness,” Bush said.
Ohio Governor John Kasich said forcing someone to register with the government because of their religion “strikes against all that we have believed in our nation’s history.”
By mid-day on Friday, Trump appeared to walk back his remarks, although he stood firm on the need for vigilance in tracking extremists.
“I didn’t suggest a database — a reporter did,” Trump tweeted to his five million followers.
“We must defeat Islamic terrorism and have surveillance, including a watch list, to protect America,” he said.
US presidential candidate Ben Carson, a top Republican contender, pushed back against Trump.
“If we’re just going to pick out a particular group of people based on their religion, based on their race... that’s setting a dangerous precedent,” he told reporters in New Hampshire.
Carson made his own controversial comments after the Paris attacks, including on Thursday when he equated the threat of militants slipping into the country as refugees with the threat of a “rabid dog.”
US Senator Ted Cruz, who has been reticent to directly attack Trump on the campaign trail, is opposed to Syrian Muslim refugees reaching US shores.
However, Cruz said he opposed a Muslim database on the grounds it would infringe on American religious liberty.
“I’m not a fan of government registries of American citizens,” he said.
“What I do think is important is that the federal government be far more vigorous going after radical Islamic terrorists,” Carson said.
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