Donald Trump defended his new policy that would ban Muslims from entering the United States at a rally Monday night in South Carolina, calling the policy “common sense.”
“We have to look at mosques, we have no choice because something is happening in there,” Trump said at the rally.
“Don’t worry about profiling, I promise I will defend you from profiling, I promise,” Trump continued, eliciting cheers from the audience.
Prior to the rally, Trump called for a “total and complete shutdown” of Muslims entering the United States, saying they should not be let in “until our country’s representatives can figure out what is going on.”
Trump’s new immigration stance is his harshest to date, and comes in the wake of a mass shooting in San Bernardino, California, in which two attackers opened fire at a holiday party after at least one of them professed allegiance to the Islamic State.
“Without looking at the various polling data, it is obvious to anybody the hatred is beyond comprehension,” Trump said in a statement, referring to claims that some American Muslims support violence against the United States. “Where this hatred comes from and why we will have to determine. Until we are able to determine and understand this problem and the dangerous threat it poses, our country cannot be the victims of horrendous attacks by people that believe only in Jihad, and have no sense of reason or respect for human life.”
In his statement, Trump cites a poll conducted by the Center for Security Policy — a group founded by Frank Gaffney Jr., whom the Southern Poverty Law Center called “one of America’s most notorious Islamophobes.” Trump said the poll found 25% of Muslims in America said “violence against Americans here in the United States is justified as a part of the global jihad.”
