– ‘Lynch mob leader’ –
“Donald Trump is unhinged,” former Florida governor Jeb Bush tweeted. “His ‘policy’ proposals are not serious.”
Rivals Marco Rubio, John Kasich, Chris Christie and Lindsey Graham were among those who rejected Trump’s proposal.
Hillary Clinton, the main Democratic presidential hopeful, described Trump’s comments as “reprehensible, prejudiced and divisive.”
“You don’t get it,” she tweeted to Trump. “This makes us less safe.”
Democratic contender Martin O’Malley slammed Trump as “a fascist demagogue.”
Trump has appeared immune to the denunciations.
He remains the clear frontrunner for the Republican nomination less than two months before the first state-wide votes are cast in the primary race, even amid broad public outrage at many of his remarks.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, said it was “extremely shocked” about Trump’s comments.
“It is reckless and simply un-American,” CAIR executive director Nihad Awad said.
“Donald Trump sounds more like a leader of a lynch mob than a great nation like ours.”
Trump’s campaign said some of the poll figures it cited were from the Center for Security Policy, which CAIR noted has been branded a “hate group” by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
In New Jersey, director Ahmed Shadeed of the Islamic Center of Jersey City, warned that Trump’s remarks were “giving the right to people to hurt us.”
“I’m asking him, I’m begging him it has to stop, all these accusations,” he said after prayers at a mosque in the city, as he urged Trump and others to see Muslims as “part of the American mosaic.”
Protesters interrupted his speech at least three times, with a visibly frustrated Trump criticizing what he described as poor security at the event.
White House spokesman Josh Earnest said Trump was tapping into a darker side to “play on people’s fears in order to build on support for his campaign.”
Instead of condemning the Muslim community, US officials should work with Muslim leaders to root out extremist voices and “insulate those who are vulnerable to being radicalized,” Earnest told MSNBC.
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