Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump said Wednesday that “Islam hates us” and that the United States can’t allow people into the country who have such hatred for the U.S. and people who are not Muslim.
Asked if he thinks Islam is at war with the West, Mr. Trump said: “I think Islam hates us.”
“There’s something there — there’s a tremendous hatred there,” he told CNN’s Anderson Cooper. “There’s a tremendous hatred. We have to get to the bottom of it. There is an unbelievable hatred of us.”
Asked whether he thinks the hatred is “in Islam itself,” Mr. Trump said: “You’re going to have to figure that out, OK? You’ll get another Pulitzer.”
“But there is a tremendous hatred, and we have to be very vigilant, we have to be very careful, and we can’t allow people coming into this country who have this hatred of the United States, and of people that are not Muslim,” he said.
Asked whether there is a war between the West and “radical Islam” or a war between the West and “Islam itself,” Mr. Trump said: “It’s radical, but it’s very hard to define. It’s very hard to separate because you don’t know who’s who.”
In December, Mr. Trump had called for a temporary ban on Muslims entering the United States in the wake of the San Bernardino terror attack.
“Without looking at the various polling data, it is obvious to anybody the hatred is beyond comprehension,” he said then. “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.”
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.