MOUNT PLEASANT, S.C. (AP) — Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s call to block Muslims from entering the United States is being met with a chorus of near-universal condemnation from across the country and around the globe.
From the halls of Congress to 10 Downing Street, Trump’s statement Monday advocating a “total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States” was blasted as bigoted, unconstitutional and potentially dangerous for American interests abroad.
British Prime Minister David Cameron, breaking the custom of British leaders not commenting on U.S. presidential contenders, slammed it as “divisive, unhelpful and quite simply wrong.” U.N. spokesman Farhan Haq said Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon denounced “any kind of rhetoric that relies on Islamophobia, xenophobia, any other appeal to hate any groups.” The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints issued a statement in support of religious freedom.
Even Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling weighed in, decrying Trump on Twitter as worse than her fictional villain Lord Voldemort.
“This is not conservatism,” Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan told reporters after a closed-door GOP caucus meeting. “What was proposed yesterday is not what this party stands for, and more importantly it’s not what this country stands for.”
Trump’s campaign has been marked by a pattern of inflammatory statements, dating back to rhetoric that some Mexican immigrants, who entered the country illegally, are drug smugglers and rapists — but even that didn’t evoke the same widespread level of contempt.
