US Muslims condemn Trump over mosque closure comments

Muslim communities in the United States on Wednesday condemned Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump's apparent willingness to close down American mosques.

In a televised interview on Fox Business with Stuart Varney on Wednesday, Trump stressed that he would “absolutely" close mosques in the US if elected president.

Responding to a question by Varney asking what he thought of debates in the UK over the possibility of shutting down mosques and revoking citizens' passports as part of counter-terrorism policies, Trump said, “I would do that, absolutely. I think it's great."

“If you go out, you go fight for ISIL, you can't come back. Why can't you do it? You can do it here," he added.

When Fox host Varney asked whether he could close a mosque given that US laws protect religious freedom, Trump answered: “Well, I don't know. I mean, I haven't heard about the closing of the mosque. It depends, if the mosque is, you know, loaded for bear, I don't know. You're going to have to certainly look at it."

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization in the US, condemned the latest offensive comments from the Republican Party frontrunner.

“Donald Trump's apparent willingness to close down American mosques that he deems 'extreme' is totally incompatible with the Constitution and our nation's cherished principle of religious freedom," CAIR Government Affairs Department Manager Robert McCaw said in a statement Wednesday.

“The government should not be in the business of deciding what is acceptable free speech or religious belief," McCaw said. “Donald Trump's off-the-cuff remarks are both un-American, and un-presidential."

Ibrahim Hooper, the CAIR spokesperson, noted that Trump is an example of the “off-the-rails Islamophobia that we are seeing from the right wing of the American political sector."

Linda Sarsour, executive director of the Arab-American Association of New York, called the comments “dangerous" and warned that unless other politicians publicly spoke out against Trump, his remarks could put people within the community at risk.

“That the Republican front-runner for president is calling for the closing down of religious institutions in the land of religious freedom is outrageous," Sarsour told The News. “This rhetoric, if it's allowed to continue, has real consequences for the Muslim community in the US"

“It creates suspicion and stigma against an entire community," she added. “It's unfair and unjust."

Even Congressman Peter King of New York, who has often himself been criticized for Islamophobia, condemned Trump's remarks.

“Donald Trump is talking before he knows what he's talking about," King said on Fox.

“I have been critical of people in the Muslim community, but the fact is you can't be shutting down mosques," he added.

Shari VanderWerf, an American writer and stand-up comedian, said on Twitter, “Donald Trump wants to close mosques because when the founding fathers talked about freedom of religion, they only meant Christianity."

Just last month, Trump was came under fire for saying he was "going to be looking at that" in response to a question at another rally about the Muslim "problem in this country" from a man who asked,“When can we get rid of them?"

The role of Islam in the United States has been one of the hot issues in the Republican presidential race.

In September, Trump's closest Republican rival, Ben Carson, said that he doesn't believe the country should elect a Muslim president because Islam is “inconsistent" with the Constitution.

A Pew Research survey last year found that Republicans – and Democrats – view Muslims, which make up about 1 percent of the US population, much more negatively than they view members of other religious groups.