Muslims around the world sound off on Donald Trump's proposed immigration policy


In a campaign statement on Monday, Donald Trump called for a "total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States." The statement caused uproar on both sides of the aisle, with GOP presidential candidates stepping up to differentiate themselves from the Republican front-runner and liberals slamming the rhetoric as fascist and unconstitutional. Hillary Clinton's campaign went as far as to seize on the moment with a fundraising call, with top aide Huma Abedin writing in an email to supporters that, "I'm a proud Muslim — but you don't have to share my faith to share my disgust."
The Associated Press reached out to Muslims from around the world who could be affected by such a policy:
"The idea by itself is insulting and offensive. If they are going to ban all Muslims because of the people that Muslim terrorists killed, then let's ban all Europeans because the people who were killed during colonial times." -Amr Ali, 30, Egypt"He is pitching non-Muslims against Muslims for political reasons." -Sadia Hafeez, Pakistan"I visited the United States over a year ago twice and had no problems. I really enjoyed the visit, it's a great nation. I always say it is the summit of democracy and justice whenever I'm talking about this country. I visited the coffee shops in the U.S. and saw many Americans sitting there, smiling and laughing. I don't see any difference between us, why does Trump want to divide us? I'm confident the American people will punish him and not vote for him at all." -Assim Salman, 47, Iraq"As a Muslim, I don't think that Trump represents the United States; he only represents himself." -Ahmed Jalajel, Palestine"He should not turn a blind eye to the fact that most of Muslims in the world strongly condemned any kind of extremism and radicalism in the name of Islam and our hearts and prayers go out to all victims of terrorism regardless of their faith." -Amidan Shaberah, Indonesia"It's true that there are Muslim extremists, those who don't have good intentions for Islam. But there are 1.7 billion Muslim people in the world. If we were all bad, then the world would be uninhabitable." -Somchai Jewangma, Thailand [The Associated Press]
Read more comments in The Associated Press.
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Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.
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