British, French leaders join world

condemnation of Trump's proposed ban on

Muslims entering U.S.

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Republican presidential contender Donald Trump said on Dec. 7 that he was in

favor of a 'total and complete' shutdown of Muslims entering the United States.
(C-SPAN)

By Annie Gowen-December 8
NEW DELHI Donald Trumps call for a total and complete ban on Muslims
entering the United States drew widespread condemnation around the world Tuesday,
including from British and French leaders and the U.N. refugee agency.
Citizens, politicians and refugee officials alike slammed the Republican presidential
front-runners latest controversial statement, calling it hate speech and a disturbing
sign of Islamophobia in a country rattled in recent weeks by large-scale terror attacks
in Paris and San Bernardino, Calif.
[Trump calls for total ban on Muslims entering the U.S.]
Dar al-Ifta, Egypts official religious body, dubbed Trumps remarks hate rhetoric, and
a spokeswoman for the U.N. refugee agency expressed concern that they could
jeopardize the ongoing refugee resettlement process.
While it is rare for a British prime minister to comment on contenders in the U.S.
presidential race, Prime Minister David Cameron joined British politicians from all
parties in condemning Trumps remarks. Cameron said through a spokeswoman that

he completely disagrees with Trumps comments, which he regards as divisive,

unhelpful and quite simply wrong.

Repub
lican presidential candidate Donald Trump is not one to back down readily
from controversial statements, and the list of those he dislikes continues to
grow.
The billionaire developer and reality television star, who polls show leads the field for
the GOP presidential nomination, released a statement Monday calling for a total and
complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country's
representatives can figure out what is going on.
Later Monday, Trump, 69, read the statement out loud at a rally in Charleston, S.C.,
where an enthusiastic crowd greeted him with cheers and chants of Trump! Trump!
and U.S.A.! U.S.A.!
We have no choice. We have. No. Choice, Trump said, with a shake of his head. His
statement may be politically incorrect, he said, but I dont care!
Trump repeated his call for a ban in a television interviews Tuesday.
In Britain, Camerons spokeswoman told reporters: The prime minister has been very
clear that, as we look at how we tackle extremism and this poisonous ideology, what
politicians need to do is look at ways they can bring communities together and make
clear that these terrorists are not representative of Islam and indeed what they are
doing is a perversion of Islam.
When asked if Cameron would be willing to meet Trump or whether he could be

banned from Britain, his spokeswoman declined to answer, saying the questions were
hypothetical.

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Londons Metropolitan Police also weighed in, rebutting Trumps comment that areas
of the city are so radicalized that police are afraid for their lives.
We would not normally dignify such comments with a response, however on this
occasion we think its important to state to Londoners that Mr. Trump could not be
more wrong, a police spokeswoman said.
Any U.S. presidential candidate is welcome to receive a briefing from the Met Police
on the reality of policing London, she added.
[Do other countries have Donald Trumps? Of course they do.]
In France, where the ruling Socialists are in a pitched election battle with a far-right
anti-immigrant party, Prime Minister Manuel Valls on Tuesday wrote on Twitter that
"Trump, like others, stokes hatred and conflations: our ONLY enemy is radical
Islamism."
Valls's implicit comparison was with the National Front party, which is poised to seize
power in local legislatures around France in runoff elections on Sunday. National Front
leader Marine Le Pen has seized on fears of Muslims and terrorism to create a potent
ballot-box force even as mainstream voices in France have promoted moderation.
The heated rhetoric left many Muslims feeling bewildered, scared and angry. In
Lebanons Bekaa Valley, for example, Syrians stranded in overcrowded, cold refugee
camps said they worried that rising xenophobia could further complicate their hopes of
seeking asylum in the United States.
How can a country that always talks about human rights and freedom do this or even
consider this? said Bourhan Salem, 32, who fled to the Bekaa to escape the violence
around his home in Syrias Daraa province. Do they know what we have suffered?
In Geneva, Melissa Fleming, a spokeswoman for the U.N. refugee agency, said Trump

was speaking of an entire population but that his remarks particularly affect refugees.
Our resettlement program selects the people who are the most in need, she told
reporters. The program of her agency, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, is
religion-blind, Fleming said.
We are concerned that the rhetoric that is being used in the election campaign is
putting an incredibly important resettlement program at risk that is meant for the most
vulnerable people the victims of the wars that the world is unable to stop, Fleming
said, according to Reuters news agency.
Joel Millman, a spokesman for the International Organization for Migration, said that
prejudice or discrimination based on religion is totally against every convention that
we know of in aiding people in humanitarian emergencies and of course in
resettlement, Reuters reported.
[Frances triumphant far-right and the echoes of Donald Trump]
Dar al-Ifta, the official Egyptian religious body, said in a statement that Trumps rhetoric
"will increase tension" in the United States, which is home to millions of Muslims who
are "peaceful and loyal American citizens."
And in Kabul, a property dealer named Timur Shah said Americans need to rise up
and prevent Trump from becoming their leader.
None of us deserve him. What he says is harmful for all of us and will help the Islamic
State and fanatics on all sides, Shah said.
Trumps call also drew reactions from journalists and editorial writers throughout
Europe and in Israel, where he is due to arrive for a visit later this month. Israeli
columnist Chemi Shalev said the sight of the crowds cheering Trump evoked the early
days of Nazi Germany.
For some Jews, the sight of thousands of supporters waving their fists in anger as
Trump incited against Muslims and urged a blanket ban on their entry to the United
States could have evoked associations with beer halls in Munich a century ago,
Shalev wrote in the Israeli daily newspaper Haaretz.
Trumps comments were widely covered in the European media, with many outlets
wondering if he went too far this time. The German daily Sddeutsche Zeitung ran an
editorial with the headline, How Donald Trump is betraying America.
Londons Daily Telegraph newspaper called the statement a bombshell even by
Trumps standards. The Guardian wrote that he was further out of the mainstream
than he has been at any point since announcing his candidacy.
Trumps comment garnered worldwide reaction on social media as well.
[Donald Trump is helping the Islamic State]
In Brazil, acclaimed journalist Patricia Campos Mello shared a Slate story on Trump on
her Facebook page and commented: There is no way for this guy to get more dumb.

One of the commenters responded, There is, wait and see.

One Saudi Arabian woman, Naveen Malek, said in a tweet: "We are facing a Third
World War these days. The new leaders of intolerance are people such as Trump and
the French far-right."
Trump has bolstered his popularity with a series of increasingly controversial remarks
on women, Hispanic immigrants, the disabled and Muslims. Yet he has remained
solidly atop national polls among Republican presidential candidates since July,
according to Real Clear Politics, except for a brief period in early November when he
and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson were in a statistical dead heat.
Conventional political wisdom long expected him to fade from the race after an early
peak, but he has defied such theories so far, prompting one Republican political
operative to write a memo earlier this month detailing the Trump phenomenon and
urging Republican candidates to adopt the best elements of his anti-populist
agenda.
Trump has given voice to the rhetoric of hatred which has always been in the
American society in some form or another. Sometimes the hatred is for blacks,
sometimes for communists. Today it is Muslims, said Shahid Siddiqui, a former
member of parliament in India, who edits the Nai Duniya Urdu newspaper and is the
co-founder of a group called Inter-Faith Peace Foundation.
Now that he has brought out the worst, it will be fought by all that is good in American
society and democracy, Siddiqui said. Words of hatred should not just remain under
the skin. If the boil has erupted, it will surely be countered by Americans themselves.

Karla Adam in London, William Branigin in Washington, Michael Birnbaum in

Brussels, William Booth in Jerusalem, Stephanie Kirchner in Berlin, Rama Lakshmi in
New Delhi, Brian Murphy in Riyadh, Dom Phillips in Rio de Janeiro, Andrew Roth in
Moscow, Sayed Salahuddin in Kabul and Suzan Haidamous and Hugh Naylor in Beirut
contributed to this report.
Read more:

Donald Trumps plan to ban Muslims is based on a very shoddy poll

Experts: Trumps Muslim entry ban idea ridiculous, unconstitutional

Today's coverage from Post correspondents around the world

Annie Gowen is The Posts India bureau chief and has reported for the Post
throughout South Asia and the Middle East.
Posted by Thavam