57 percent in US opposed Trump's proposal to ban Muslims

At least 57 percent Americans reject Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump's proposal to temporarily ban the entry of Muslim immigrants into the US, according to a survey.

The survey performed by NBC and The Wall Street Journal found that 25 percent of Americans support the proposal and 18 percent have no opinion or are "not sure" about it, the survey showed on Thursday.

last Monday, Trump -- who handily leads the Republican presidential candidates in virtually all recent voter opinion surveys -- proposed temporarily banning US entry for all foreign Muslims till the authorities find ways to prevent terrorist attacks recently staged by radicalised Muslims, Efe news agency reported.

He made his proposal after the San Bernardino, California, massacre that killed at least 14 people and injured 21others.

According to the survey, Republicans are divided on Trump's proposal with 42 percent supporting his idea, 36 percent opposing it and 22 percent undecided.

Among Democrats, however, the differences are much clearer with 75 opposing his Muslim entry ban proposal, 11 percent supporting it and 14 percent having no opinion or saying they were not sure.

The survey found that 59 percent of Americans have a favourable opinion of Muslims and 29 percent have a negative opinion.

Among Republicans, however, only 43 percent have a favourable opinion, while 48 percent have an unfavourable opinion of Muslims.

The survey also found that 41 percent of those polled believe that Trump's campaign remarks are frequently insulting and have the wrong focus.

Among Republicans, just 16 percent think that the New York real estate magnate's tone is insulting.

The survey was carried out among a sample of 1,000 adults -- 400 of whom responded by phone -- between December 6-9, although the data released by NBC do not say how the other 600 people were interviewed.

Several questions were posed to the survey participants, but the ones pertaining to Trump were asked of slightly fewer than half -- 495 people -- on December 8-9.

The survey has an error margin of +/- 4.4 percentage points.