Raising his anti-Muslim rhetoric to a new high in the wake of the California massacre, Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump has now called for a “total and complete shutdown” of Muslims entering the United States “until our country’s representatives can figure out what’s going on”.
“We have no choice, we have no choice,” Trump said at a campaign rally of cheering supporters in South Carolina on Monday night, warning of more 9/11-style attacks if stern measures were not taken.
That assertion came hours after he issued a statement, demanding the full-scale ban and justifying it by citing polls indicating “great hatred” towards Americans among “large segments of the Muslim population”.
“Where this hatred comes from and why we will have to determine,” Trump said, adding: “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’s call sparked an immediate condemnation not only by the White House, but by most of his Republican and Democratic presidential rivals. Some critics called Trump’s proposal unconstitutional and the very negation of what is enshrined in the Bill of Rights, while some compared him to Adolf Hitler.
But the billionaire businessman, who turned sharply against the Muslims since the Paris attacks last month, remained defiant, asserting that the US is “essentially at war with Muslim extremists” who have launched attacks, including the mass shooting in San Bernardino, California last Wednesday.
“We are now at war,” Trump told ABC’s “Good Morning America” on Tuesday, adding: “We have a President who doesn’t want to say that.”
In his statement, Trump referred to a poll from the Center for Security Policy, claiming that “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 reportedly agreed that “Muslims in America should have the choice of being governed according to Shariah”.
Trump’s assertion came less than 24 hours after President Obama’s address to the nation in which he called on Americans to be tolerant towards all citizens regardless of their religion even while declaring that the United States will destroy ISIS and defeat the new threat of terror.
Back in September, Trump had declared that he loves the Muslims. He then turned against the whole community in the wake of the Paris attacks, and called for a database to track Muslims in America. He also claimed that after the 9/11 attacks in 2001, thousands of Muslims in New Jersey celebrated the destruction of the World Trade Center — an assertion that city authorities and media outlets dismissed as totally baseless.
Reacting to Trump’s latest pronouncement, White House spokesman Josh Earnest accused him of “seeking to tap into a darker side, a darker element, and try to play on people’s fears in order to build support for his campaign”.
Most of Trump’s Republican presidential rivals slammed him for his call and remarks. Jeb Bush called him “unhinged”, while Ohio Governor John Kasich said the ban call “is just more of the outrageous divisiveness that characterizes his every breath”. Senator Ted Cruz said, “there are millions of peaceful Muslims around the world”, while Senator Marco Rubio said Trump’s “habit of making offensive and outlandish statements will not bring Americans together.”