Trump faces backlash after call to bar Muslims entering US

(Reuters/ Brendan McDermid)Donald Trump announcing that he's running for president.

The world outside the United States is looking back and saying has Donald Trump finally undone himself with his call to bar Muslims entering the country or will this latest bigotry again boost his home popularity.

Trump's proposal to ban all Muslim entry into the U.S., including that of tourists and Muslim Americans overseas, was countered with an immediate and massive backlash from across the political spectrum.

The National Black Church Initiative, a faith-based coalition of 34,000 churches comprised of 15 denominations and 15.7 million African Americans, had said last week said it cannot sit by and allow Trump to verbally assault every ethnic group who make up the fabric of the United States.

"He has assaulted Blacks, Mexicana, Latino, Muslims and anyone who he believed is not contributing to America or not American," the organization said in a statement.

"For whatever reason, he has assaulted everyone except for poor whites. Donald Trump is clearly dividing us by giving one group of American a false sense of superiority thus indicating the rest of us are un-American."

"Scapegoating an entire group of people is the worst form of bigotry," the NBCI said. "Donald Trump is playing to our lowest common denominator as he has sought and continues to seek to divide us by income, race, religion and political ideology.

"What disturbs us the more is that there has not been a majority of people of goodwill who have stood up to denounce this dangerous rhetoric and hate filled speech."

Some of Trump's fellow Republican Party presidential candidates quickly laid into him after his Muslim comment with Jeb Bush and Chris Christie join Democrats in denouncing proposal.

TED CRUZ

Ted Cruz, however, stopped short of criticizing the Republican frontrunner

Jeb Bush condemned Donald Trump's call to ban Muslims from entering the United States saying calling bed Trump as "unhinged" and Lindsey Graham calling on everyone seeking the presidency to denounce the plan.

Even former vice-president Dick Cheney, as the Republican establishment told a conservative radio host the call "goes against everything we believe in."

"Donald Trump today took xenophobia and religious bigotry to a new level," Graham told the Guardian in an interview shortly after Trump unveiled his proposal.

"His comments are hurting the war effort and putting our diplomats and soldiers serving in the Middle East at risk.

"The way to win this war is to reach to the vast majority of people in Islamic faith who reject Isil and provide them the capability to resist this ideology."

The mayor of St. Petersburg in Florida, Rick Kriseman, said he was banning Trump from the city "until we fully understand the dangerous threat posed by all Trumps."

New Jersey governor Chris Christie said Trump's comments reflected "a ridiculous position and one that won't even be productive."

"We do not need to resort to that type of activity nor should we," Christie told conservative radio show host Michael Medved. "We need to cooperate with peaceful Muslim Americans who want to give us intelligence against those who are radicalized."

"To ban Muslims from entering the country is just someone who is speaking from no experience," he added. "There are folks in this race that don't care what the law says because they are used to firing people indiscriminately. You do not need to be banning Muslims from the country."

Ohio governor John Kasich, one of the more vocal critics of Trump, was also quick to reject his proposal.

"This is just more of the outrageous divisiveness that characterizes his every breath and another reason why he is entirely unsuited to lead the United States," Kasich said.

Florida senator Marco Rubio was among the last of the presidential candidates to weigh in, but tweeted his disapproval of Trump's plan.

"I disagree with Donald Trump's latest proposal. His habit of making offensive and outlandish statements will not bring Americans together," Rubio wrote. "The next President better be somebody who can unite our country to face the great challenges of the 21st Century."

The official spokeswoman for British Prime Minister David Cameron said the UK leader thinks Trump's comments about Muslims are "divisive, unhelpful and quite simply wrong."

She told journalists, ""The prime minister completely disagrees with the comments made by Donald Trump, which are divisive, unhelpful and quite simply wrong.

"The prime minister has been very clear that, as we look at how we tackle extremism and this poisonous ideology, what politicians need to do is look at ways they can bring communities together and make clear that these terrorists are not representative of Islam and indeed what they are doing is a perversion of Islam."

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