Rights groups slam ‘Islamophobia’ of USA candidates

As his call to create a database to track Muslims in America created a political furore, Donald Trump said the idea was not his, while presidential rival Ben Carson suggested a database for all immigrants.

“What the First Amendment does and what it should do is drive the government to use neutral criteria”, Hamilton said.

“It would stop people from coming in illegally”, he said.

Carson added that funding for Federal Bureau of Investigation surveillance activities should be increased. “And that’s just wrong – I don’t care about campaigns”, Bush said.

Ted Cruz also jumped into the fray, tell reporters in Iowa: “I’m a big fan of Donald Trump’s but I’m not a fan of government registries of American citizens”.

Trump was pressed on the database by NBC on Thursday evening.

Donald Trump would require Muslims in the United States to register on a database. The reporter asked if that was something Trump would put in place as president.

Asked if “that’s something your White House would like to implement”, Trump replied: “I would certainly implement that”.

He addressed the issue during a rally in Alabama later, telling the crowd that reports on his previous statements were inaccurate.

He appeared to clarify a comment earlier this week about such a database, making clear it would apply to all Syrian refugees being resettled in the U.S.

On Friday, the Republican front-runner called into Fox News and complained that he was actually trying to respond to another reporter, while calling for a database for Syrian refugees.

The findings are part of a Bloomberg Politics national poll released Wednesday that also shows the nation divided on whether to send USA troops to Iraq and Syria to fight the Islamic State, an idea President Barack Obama opposes, and whether the U.S. government is doing enough to protect the homeland from a comparable attack.

He continued: “If you don’t mind, I want to be, I want to surveil”. Americans after work, if they can have the time to have a beer and see whats going on, think there are these radical Islamist terrorists who want to kill us. “But you’re putting your intellect into motion and you’re thinking how do I protect my children”. “We’ve had it before, and we’ll have it again”.

Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said Trump and his top rival for the GOP nomination, neurosurgeon Ben Carson, have participated in the mainstreaming of anti-Muslim sentiment.

And on Thursday the House of Representatives easily passed a bill that would halt the programme unless further security checks were imposed.

After a few rambling about the need for “good management”, Trump then provided the final quote that-when taken out of context-suggests a full-throated endorsement of a database that his actual words don’t imply.

In a tweet, likely Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton described the database comments as “shocking rhetoric”, and said it should be “denounced by all seeking to lead this country”.

“One of the hallmarks of America is that we treat everybody the same”, Carson said during a press availability in New Hampshire.