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Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump’s call for a “total and complete” ban on Muslims entering the United States provoked condemnation from around the world.
Even as Trump went on CNN to predict that there would be more terror attacks on the U.S. if a temporary ban is not instituted, a group calling itself the United Popular Front launched a Change.org petition to ban Trump from entering the U.K., citing his anti-Islamic rhetoric.
“We seek for the government to make a clear statement that these divisive and bigoted views will not be tolerated on our shores by barring Trump from entering the country at any time in future,” the petitioners wrote.
This is the second grass-roots attempt to keep Trump out of the U.K. A group opposed to the real estate mogul’s plans to build a golf course in Scotland last week called on the government to ban Trump from entry to the British Isles because of his “continued, unrepentant hate speech and unacceptable behavior.”
Trump, who had previously called for surveillance of mosques and said he would be open to creating a database of Muslims living in America, on Monday suggested a “total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country’s representatives can figure out what’s going on.”
The proposal came in the wake of the mass shooting in San Bernardino, Calif., by suspected ISIS sympathizers.
British Prime Minister David Cameron weighed in on Trump’s latest comments, calling the remarks “divisive, unhelpful and quite simply wrong.”
In Egypt, the country’s official religious body, Dar al-lfta, issued a statement condemning Trump’s “Islamophobic rhetoric.”
“Such a hostile attitude toward Islam and Muslims will increase tension within the American society of which Muslims represent around eight million peaceful and loyal American citizens,” the group said. “Trump’s hate rhetoric, which describes Muslims as a threat to the American community, is totally erroneous since Islam exhorts peace and coexistence.”
Similar criticisms came from a prominent human-rights activist in Pakistan, Asma Jahangir, and from Islamic activist Yenny Wahid, who labeled Trump a “loser.”
“The majority of Muslims in Indonesia are arch enemies of ISIS, so if Trump’s intention is to stop ISIS, then he should have asked for our help, not just put us in the same corner,” Wahid told the Guardian. “It shows how ignorant Donald Trump is to the state of the world.”
Even best-selling author J.K. Rowling rose to defense of one of her characters, Lord Voldemort, after BBC Radio 1 sought to draw comparisons between the fictional dark lord and Trump. She tweeted that the villain of the “Harry Potter” series, whose obsession with purity drives him to attempt to purge the wizard world of non-magical people (Muggles), is not nearly as awful as the real-life mogul.
https://twitter.com/jk_rowling/status/674196610683940864
This article originally appeared on Recode.net.
