Donald Trump Muslims comment condemned by all sides

Jeb Bush, one of his rivals for the Republican presidential nomination, said the billionaire tycoon was “unhinged”, while former vice president Dick Cheney said his comment “goes against everything we stand for and believe in”.

Democratic presidential frontrunner Hillary Clinton said the idea was “reprehensible, prejudiced and divisive”.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest told MSNBC Mr Trump was “seeking to tap into a darker side, a darker element, and try to play on people’s fears in order to build support for his campaign”.

In Britain, there were also calls for Mr Trump, who owns golf courses in Aberdeenshire and South Ayrshire, to be stripped of his honorary doctorate from a Scottish university.

More than 3,500 people have signed a petition saying Robert Gordon University should revoke the qualification.

‘Complete shutdown’

In the wake of last week’s San Bernardino shootings, Mr Trump called for “a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country’s representatives can figure out what is going on”.

He added: “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.”

Asked if the “shutdown” would apply specifically to Muslim immigrants or more broadly to students, tourists and other travellers, Mr Trump’s campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, said: “Everyone.”

Syrian refugees

Mr Trump has gone further than some of his rival presidential candidates, who have called for the suspension of Barack Obama’s plan to resettle up to 10,000 Syrian refugees in the US.

The United Nations refugee agency said discrimination based on religion was contrary to all international accords on dealing with refugees.

To justify his proposal, Mr Trump pointed to data from the conservative think tank, the Center for Security Policy, which indicated that a quarter of Muslims polled thought violence against Americans was justified.

Mr Trump is the frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination, according to opinion polls. In a recent poll by Reuters/Ipsos, 69 per cent of Republicans expressed fears about Muslims, compared with 39 per cent of Democrats.