ADL slams Trump’s call for a database of US Muslims

Gabe Friedman

Republican presidential candidate, businessman Donald Trump, right, talking with Ben Carson during a break in the CNN Republican presidential debate at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum, Wednesday, Sept. 16, 2015, in Simi Valley, Calif. (Mark J. Terrill/Ap Images)

Republican presidential candidate, businessman Donald Trump, right, talking with Ben Carson during a break in the CNN Republican presidential debate at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum, Wednesday, Sept. 16, 2015, in Simi Valley, Calif. (Mark J. Terrill/Ap Images)

(JTA) — The Anti-Defamation League called Donald Trump’s claim that he would create a database to track all American Muslims if he were elected president “deeply troubling.”

“Donald Trump’s suggestion that we use a database to track Muslims is deeply troubling and reminiscent of darker days in American history when others were singled out for scapegoating,” the ADL said in a statement Friday.

“Such a proposal is not only inimical to our cherished civil liberties, but it also wildly misses the goal of finding a rational balance between civil liberties and the security measures necessary to protect those liberties.”

During a campaign stop in Newton, Iowa, Friday morning, the Republican presidential candidate told NBC News that he was for implementing a system that would require all American Muslims to register in a database to help prevent terrorism.

“I would certainly implement that. Absolutely,” he said when asked about the idea. “There should be a lot of systems, beyond databases.”

Asked if there was a difference between his idea and the Nazi practice of making Jews register their religious identity in Germany during World War II, Trump repeatedly said, “You tell me.”

The ADL also criticized Republican presidential candidates Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Tx., for recently proposing that the U.S. only take in Christian refugees, and Ben Carson, for recently comparing Syrian refugees to “rabid dogs.”

“It is also regrettable that some prominent candidates, including Ted Cruz and Ben Carson, have also made remarks crossing the line into scapegoating Syrian refugees,” the ADL statement read. “[T]hey are playing to our basest instincts.”

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