Ban on Muslims like Roosevelt’s WWII policy: Donald Trump

Trump unfazed by deluge of criticism

Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump on Tuesday likened his proposal to ban Muslims from entering the United States to policies implemented by former US President Franklin Roose-velt against people of Japanese, German and Italian descent during World War Two.

“What I’m doing is no different than FDR,” Mr Trump said on ABC’s Good Morning America, where he defended his plan in the wake of last week’s Califo-rnia shooting spree by two Muslims. “We have no choice but to do this,” the candidate seeking the Rep-ublican nomination in the 2016 presidential race told ABC. “We have people that want to blow up our buildings, our cities. We have figure out what’s going on.” Still, Mr Trump said that Roosevelt’s policies were worse.

During World War II, more than 1,10,000 people were forcibly detained in US government detention camps. Roosevelt issued the policies immediately after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, authorising law enforcement to target “alien enemies.”

In a separate interview, Mr Trump said he did not know how long the ban on Muslims would have to be in place. “Until we can get our hands around the situation, we have to do something and we have to do it now,” he said.

The White House said that Mr Trump’s plan rejects American values by singling out people solely based on their religion.

White House deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes on Monday, “It’s totally contrary to our values as Americans. We have in our Bill of Rights respect for the freedom of religion.” French Prime Minister Manuel Valls, in a post on Twitter, said “Mr Trump, like others, is feeding hatred and misinformation. Our only enemy is radical Islam.”

Fellow Republican candidates as well as Muslims in Pakistan and Indonesia have denounced the plan.

Former vice-president Dick Cheney and Republic-an presidential hopeful Jeb Bush said that Mr Trump was “unhinged”.

Indonesian foreign ministry spokesman said his government would not co-mment on election campaigns in other countries, while adding that his country had made known its position on terrorism. “As the country with the bigg-est Muslim population in the world, Indonesia affir-ms that Islam teaches peac-e and tolerance,” he said. “Acts of terror do not have any relation with any religion or country or race.”