Donald Trump sparked a furious backlash on Monday when he called for all Muslims to be barred from entering the United States in the wake of terrorism attacks in Paris and California.
It was a bombshell even by the outspoken candidate’s standard of bombast, and brought the immediate condemnation of his rivals for the Republican nomination. However, Trump was unmoved later telling a crowd: “I. Don’t. Care.”
The furore began when the Trump campaign issued a statement saying: “Donald Trump is calling for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country’s representatives can figure out what is going on.”
His officials confirmed that the ban would apply not only to immigrants and refugees, but tourists as well.
He said he was calling for the ban because of data indicating there was “great hatred towards Americans by large segments of the Muslim population”.
“Without looking at the various polling data, it is obvious to anybody the hatred is beyond comprehension,” Mr Trump said. “Where this hatred comes from and why we will have to determine.”
He claimed while he knew he wasn’t being “politically correct” he was leading the “noisy majority”.
He added: “We used to call it the quiet majority, but people are fed up – they are fed up with incompetence, they are fed up with stupid leaders, they are fed up with stupid people.”
A spokesperson for the Council on America-Islamic Relations compared it with Nazi rhetoric from the 1930s.
“Donald Trump sounds more like a leader of a lynch mob than a great nation like ours,” said Nihad Awad.
Mr Trump later addressed a rally in South Carolina, reading from his statement to cheers before adding: “It’s common sense and we have to do it.”
He went on to say that the US was heading for more terrorist disasters and that the Paris attacks would not have ended with so many casualties if French people had been allowed to carry guns.
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