November 17, 2015•Update: November 17, 2015
NEW YORK
A pair of Republican presidential candidates have declared their intentions to pursue tougher policies they say would be aimed at targeting Daesh militants in the wake of deadly attacks in Paris the group has claimed.
Donald Trump said Monday that he would seriously consider closing mosques across the country if elected to the White House.
"I would hate do it. But it's something that you are gonna have to strongly consider," Trump said during a telephone interview with MSNBC news network.
"Some of the ideas and some of the hatred, the absolute hatred, is coming from these areas," he said, adding that mosques need to be "watched and studied" by law enforcement as part of the fight against Daesh.
He also defended a controversial surveillance program by New York police that reportedly engaged in the religious profiling and suspicionless surveillance of Muslims in the city.
At a campaign rally one day after the Paris attacks, he had said the massacre would not have taken place if the victims had been armed. The attacks killed at least 129 victims.
Speaking to CNN, Jeb Bush said U.S. assistance to Syrian refugees should focus primarily on Christians instead of Muslims.
“We should focus our efforts as it relates to refugees on the Christians that are being slaughtered," he said Sunday.
He said the U.S. must do “thorough screening” before accepting “a limited number” of refugees.
Bush said the Paris attacks were “a threat against Western civilization”, adding that the U.S. needs to “lead” the fight against this threat.
“The United States has pulled back, and when we pull back, voids are filled and they are filled right now by Islamic terrorism that threatens our country,” he said.
Meanwhile, President Barack Obama described Bush’s comment about refugees as “shameful” and incompatible with American values.
During a news conference in Antalya, Turkey, where he attended a G20 leaders summit, Obama commented on Bush’s remarks without naming him.
“That is shameful,” he said. “That is not American. It’s not who we are. We don’t have religious tests to our compassion,” he added.
Other Republican candidates have previously made similar Islamophobic remarks, with on claiming that Islam is incompatible with the country’s laws.
Ben Carson said in September that he would not support a Muslim president. “I would not advocate that we put a Muslim in charge of this nation. I absolutely would not agree with that,” he said.
Asked whether he believed Islam is consistent with the U.S. Constitution, he answered: “No, I do not.”
Trump and Carson currently hold the top spots in national Republican presidential polls.
