Controversial remarks condemned
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump on Monday, Dec. 7, called for a ban on all Muslims entering the United States, following a Dec. 2 mass shooting in San Bernardino committed by a radicalized Muslim couple.
“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 in a statement.
A campaign press release cited an online poll from the controversial Center for Security Policy, which claimed that 25 percent of Muslims living in the United States believe violence Americans is justified as part of a global jihadist campaign. The organization is run by a man named Frank Gaffney who is identified as an anti-Muslim extremist by the Southern Poverty Law Center, The Washington Post reported.
In reading a press release announcing the immigration proposal in South Carolina, Trump said it was “common sense” and that the nation has to do it.
“These are people who are here, by the way,” he said, citing the poll.
“These are people who only believe in jihad. They have no respect for human life,” he continued.
In an earlier interview on Fox News, Trump said his proposal doesn’t apply to Muslims residing in the United States, “but we have to be vigilant.”
Trump’s proposal is “disqualifying,” contrary to American values and national security
White House press secretary Josh Earnest said Trump’s remarks “disqualify” him from being president of the United States and called on other Republicans to withdraw support for him, even if he becomes the Republican presidential nominee.
“What he said is disqualifying,” Earnest said of the real estate mogul, according to NBC News. “And any Republican who’s too fearful of the Republican base to admit it has no business serving as president either.”
Secretary of State John Kerry also spoke against Trump’s proposal, saying it does not align with American values.
“I would simply say that nondiscrimination and equal treatment are a pillar of not just American values but of our immigration and our admission policies in this country and the State Department remains totally committed to treating all religions with respect and without discrimination,” Kerry said at a press briefing in Paris, CNN reported.
Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook, without explicitly mentioning Trump’s name, said the comments put the nation’s security at risk, CNN reported.
“Anything that bolsters ISIL’s narrative and pits the United States against the Muslim faith is certainly not only contrary to our values but contrary to our national security,” Cook said.
He added that many Muslim Americans are serving the country and that the United States is working with Muslim nations now.
“We want to, in essence, take the fight to ISIL with the help of Muslim around the world,” he said, according to CNN.
Political leaders condemn proposal
Trump’s call to action has elicited backlash from a number of individuals, including rival presidential candidates and international leaders. However, he has defended his “reasonable precaution” by citing how Roosevelt classified Japanese, Germans and Italians in the United States as “enemy aliens” during World War II when he was president.
“This is a president highly respected by all; he did the same thing,” Trump said, according to The New York Times. Just as America was at war in the 1940s, it is now “at war with radical Islam,” he said.
“This is the kind of thing that people say when they have no experience and don’t know what they’re talking about,” said Republican presidential candidate and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.
“This is just more of the outrageous divisiveness that characterizes his every breath and another reason why he is entirely unsuited to lead the United States,” said Ohio Gov. John Kasich, also a Republican presidential candidate.
Ben Rhodes, President Barack Obama’s deputy national security adviser, told CNN that Trump’s proposal is contrary to the values of Americans and to the nation’s security.
“The fact of the matter is ISIL wants to frame this as a war between the United States and Islam, and if we look like we’re applying religious tests to who comes into this country, we’re sending a message that essentially we’re embracing that frame and that is going to make it very difficult to partner with Muslim communities here in the United States and around the world to prevent the scourge of radicalization that we should be focused on,” he said.
In an address to the nation on Sunday, Dec. 6, Obama urged Americans to resist the temptation to discriminate.
“It’s our responsibility to reject proposals that Muslim Americans should somehow be treated differently,” he said. “Because when we travel down that road, we lose.”
Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont also criticized Trump’s suggestion.
“Demagogues throughout our history have attempted to divide us based on race, gender, sexual orientation or country of origin. Now, Trump and others want us to hate all Muslims. The United States is a great nation when we stand together. We are a weak nation when we allow racism and xenophobia to divide us,” he said in a statement.
British Prime Minister David Cameron called Trump’s comments “divisive and unhelpful.”
UK Independent Party leader Nigel Farage, who has previously said he agrees with some of Trump’s comments, said the candidate has gone too far, according to The Telegraph.
“I think that Mr. Trump’s somewhat kneejerk reaction to this, saying that all Muslims should be banned from coming into America, was, perhaps for him, a political mistake too far.”
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) also criticized Trump’s remarks as un-American and unconstitutional.
“It seems that Donald Trump is now channelling the worst of the worst of the Islamaphobia industry in the United States,” said CAIR spokesman Ibrahim Hooper.
Muslims overseas react
Muslims around the globe also offered their responses to Trump’s call for a “total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States.”
Ahmed Yousri, a 23-year-old banker in Cairo, told The Associated Press that Trump’s proposal may play into the hands of the Islamic State and help the group find additional recruits.
“We must also blame our media and religious leaders for not preventing extremist thought from expanding. That is their role and they are not taking it as seriously as they should,” Yousri said.
“But what Trump is doing is giving IS a more legitimate cause for its existence. It will justify their acts and help them recruit more people.”
Aziza Yousef, a computer science professor at King Saud University from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, said she thinks Trump represents himself and not all Americans. She also asked why when there are “crazy people” who happen to be Muslim, all other Muslims are blamed.
“I will not be responsible for someone who commits a crime who happens to be a Muslim. I will not defend myself or defend Islam because a guy or a person who happens to be Muslim did something stupid,” she said.
