Cruz’s statement on Tuesday came hours after the deadly attacks at the Brussels airport and a subway station that killed dozens of people and wounded many more.
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Cruz is now second behind Donald Trump in the race for the Republican presidential nomination.
Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders and progressive groups as well as New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio slammed Cruz for making controversial suggestions.
President Barack Obama answer a question during a join news conference with Argentine President Mauricio Macri at the Casa Rasada in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Wednesday, March 23, 2016.
Clinton said Cruz’s proposal would treat “American Muslims like criminals”, and she called the suggestion “wrong”, “counterproductive” and “dangerous”.
“He’s just basically buying into what ISIS wants: Muslims against the West. Gov. Snyder is buying into the rhetoric”, Maged Moughni, a Dearborn attorney, told the Detroit Free Press in November.
“I would remind the senator he lives in the United States of America”, said Bratton, “and the statements he made today is why he’s not going to become president of this country-because we don’t need a president that doesn’t respect the values that form the foundation of this country”.
After dealing with the negative response, Cruz attempted to explain his stance and proposal by doubling down on Wednesday morning by doing a round of interviews in the media. He said Tuesday’s attacks in Brussels are the result of unassimilated Muslims refusing to turn in terrorists living in their midst.
Clinton specifically attacked Trump for his calls Monday, including on CNN, to reconsider USA involvement in and expenditures to North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, which is headquartered in Brussels.
“We’re targeted even if it’s not our fault”, said Ghanim, adding that the Islamic State was not Islam as he understood it.
“That effect is essentially creating a divide, creating this “us versus them” mentality”, Afzali said.
When Donald Trump first raised the idea a year ago of deploying torture in the fight against terrorism, we thought he might just be unaware that it is banned under global, domestic and military law and that nearly no one of stature supported its revival.
Cruz said police should be permitted to “patrol and secure Muslim neighborhoods before they become radicalized”.
How exactly a President Cruz would do that was left unclear, but presumably it could involve a heightened police presence in Muslim communities, random stops and searches of Muslim residents, and a massive surveillance and intelligence collecting apparatus to keep tabs on Americans’ religious affiliations, political views and personal associates.
Along with the horror and sadness evoked by the bombings in Brussels on Tuesday, Seattle’s Muslim community is also grappling with feelings of fear and anxiety.
“One of the great strengths of the United States, and part of the reason why we have not seen more attacks in the United States, is that we have an extraordinarily successful, patriotic, integrated Muslim community”.
Cruz’s suggestion “doesn’t make you sound tough, it makes you sound like you’re in over your head”, she said.
Ahmad Tarek Rashid Alam, publisher of the weekly Arabic-language Arab World newspaper and one of the immigrants who helped build Little Arabia, said anti-Muslim statements are familiar.
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The president reiterated that defeating ISIS is his top priority, saying “there is no more important item on my agenda” but that we have to go about defeating the group “in an intelligent way”. “That’s what local law enforcement does”, said Rep. Tim Huelskamp, R-Kan., who has endorsed Cruz.
