Critics quickly condemned Trump’s remarks, with a few likening such a system to how Nazis forced Jewish residents of Germany to register during the Holocaust.
Advertisement
Ben Carson, a top Republican presidential contender, pushed back against Trump.
“If there’s a rabid dog running around in your neighbourhood, you’re probably not going to assume something good about that dog”, said Mr Carson, a neurosurgeon who trumpets his lack of political experience as a bonus.
Mr. Trump’s comments about a national database for Muslims came Thursday night while he was campaigning in Iowa.
Trump, asked how he would get Muslims registered into a database, said: “It would be just good management”.
He responded, “I would certainly implement that”.
As Republicans and Democrats rivals alike blasted the database proposal as “abhorrent” and “shocking”, the real estate mogul said the notion that he would implement a database as a way to follow Muslims was not his. It’s manipulating people’s angst and their fears.
“I think we should have a database on everybody who comes into this country”, Carson said in Concord, New Hampshire.
“Should there be a database system that tracks Muslims here in this country?” the NBC reporter asks. Trump said: “You tell me”, and then stopped responding. He also is considering special identifications for Muslims, according to an interview Trump had with a social media news group on November 19.
While a few of his rivals have been chastised by the president for suggesting that Christian Syrian refugees be given preference over Muslims, Trump has gone further in his rhetoric, advocating new restrictions on civil liberties and enhanced surveillance activities, including inside mosques.
Ted Cruz, who has supported Trump on past issues, are not backing this latest plan.
Hillary Clinton tweeted a link to a NY Times story reporting that Trump said he “absolutely” would require Muslim registration.
“You talk about internment, you talk about closing mosques, you talk about registering people”, Bush said on CNBC on Friday morning.
The Anti-Defamation League joined the opposition in a statement and called Trump’s claim “deeply troubling” and “reminiscent of darker days in American history”. They called Trump’s proposal “Islamophobic and unconstitutional”. “It should be denounced by all seeking to lead this country”, Clinton wrote on Twitter.
In a posted Thursday, the GOP presidential front-runner says in the wake of the ISIS attacks in Paris last week, “security is going to rule” in the United States to take on “radical Islamic terrorism”.
Advertisement
Trump spoke Thursday a few hours after the House passed legislation essentially barring Syrian and Iraqi refugees from the United States.
