ISIS war, Trump dominate GOP debate

Ted Cruz says Muslims from countries like India peaceful

Republican presidential hopefuls put the war against ISIS jihadists front and centre on Tuesday as they debated how to keep America safe — with Donald Trump under attack for demanding a ban on Muslims entering the country.

Just weeks after deadly attacks in Paris and California, Republicans vying for their party’s nomination in the 2016 race for the White House were suddenly confronted with the spectre of terrorism on US soil and the steps they would take to defeat the ISIS group entrenched in Iraq and Syria.

But amid pronouncements that US freedoms are under attack, several of Mr Trump’s rivals aimed criticism at the billionaire real estate mogul over his incendiary anti-Muslim remarks at the debate, the last for the Republicans in 2015.

“There are millions of peaceful Muslims across the world, in countries like India, where there is not the problems we are seeing in nations that are controlled by Al Qaeda or ISIS, and we should direct at the problem, focus on the problem, and defeat radical Islamic terrorism,” US Senator Ted Cruz said.

“We can’t disassociate ourselves from peace-loving Muslims. If we expect to do this on our own, we will fail,” said former Florida governor Jeb Bush, whose campaign has failed to gain major traction over the past year.

Mr Trump is “great at the one-liners,” Mr Bush added, “but he’s a chaos candidate and he’d be a chaos President.”

Senator Marco Rubio, who has been on the rise with seven weeks to go before voters in the heartland state of Iowa cast the first ballots in the nominations process, dismissed Mr Trump’s ban, simply saying the proposal “isn’t going to happen”.

Senator Rand Paul piled on. “I think if we ban certain religions, if we censor the Internet, I think that at that point, the terrorists will have won,” he said.

Mr Trump, the tycoon and onetime reality television star who has been the surprise leader of the Republican presidential race, has only gained in popularity since his abrasive anti-Muslim comments, even as rivals accused him of playing into jihadist hands.

Two polls unveiled on Monday and Tuesday show Mr Trump at new heights, with Mr Cruz surging into second place and looking to rattle the frontrunner in the Las Vegas showdown featuring nine candidates.

But Mr Cruz stepped gingerly when it came to criticising Mr Trump. The Tea Party-backed senator suggested he was opposed to letting in refugees from West Asian war zones who cannot be properly vetted.

“We will not be admitting jihadists as refugees. We will keep America safe,” Mr Cruz said.

The debate is the first since the Paris and San Bernardino attacks — violence that has brought national security concerns to the fore and heightened Americans’ fears about illegal immigration and Syrian refugees.

Those fears likely played prominently in recent surveys, including a Monmouth University poll released on Monday showing 41 per cent of Republican voters support Mr Trump, his highest position yet in the poll.

Mr Trump was largely absent from the detailed debate over strategy to defeat the ISIS group, instead clashing with rivals.“He’s a very nice person,” Mr Trump said of Mr Bush, “but we need toughness.”