World leaders, rival presidential hopefuls and even the creators of Harry Potter and The Shining all agree - Donald Trump's call to block Muslims from entering the United States goes too far.
The Republican presidential frontrunner's statement advocating a "total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States" was blasted as bigoted, unconstitutional and potentially dangerous for American interests abroad.
Prime Minister David Cameron, breaking the custom of British leaders not commenting on US presidential contenders, slammed it as "divisive, unhelpful and quite simply wrong".
UN spokesman Farhan Haq said secretary-general Ban Ki-moon denounced "any kind of rhetoric that relies on Islamophobia, xenophobia, any other appeal to hate any groups".
Harry Potter author JK Rowling decried Trump on Twitter as worse than her fictional villain Lord Voldemort, while horror novelist Stephen King wrote: "That anyone in America would even CONSIDER voting for this rabid coyote leaves me speechless."
"This is not conservatism," Republican house speaker Paul Ryan told reporters after a closed-door Republican caucus meeting. "What was proposed yesterday is not what this party stands for, and more importantly it's not what this country stands for."
Mr Trump's campaign has been marked by inflammatory statements, dating back to rhetoric that some Mexican immigrants, who entered the country illegally, are drug smugglers and rapists - but even that did not evoke the same widespread level of contempt.
The billionaire businessman and former reality television star has maintained his lead in early opinion surveys, despite the controversies, vexing his Republican rivals and alarming a Republican establishment in panic over the damage they fear he is doing to a deeply divided party.
Mr Trump, who appears to revel in the attention, did not back down from his proposal on Tuesday, saying that banning Muslims "until our country's representatives can figure out what the hell is going on" is warranted after last month's attacks by Muslim extremists in Paris and last week's shootings in San Bernardino, California.
"Somebody in this country has to say what's right," Mr Trump said in an interview. "It's short-term. Let our country get its act together."
Mr Trump's proposed ban would apply to immigrants and visitors alike, a sweeping prohibition affecting adherents of a religion practised by more than a billion people worldwide.
Mr Trump clarified in a round of television interviews on Tuesday that his proposed ban would not apply to American citizens travelling abroad and would allow exemptions for certain people, including the leaders of Middle Eastern countries and athletes for certain sporting events.
Among those not specified in his list of exemptions are Pakistani activist Malala Yousafzai and the four civil society groups that led Tunisia's transition to democracy - all Muslim Nobel Peace Prize winners.
At the White House, press secretary Josh Earnest lambasted Mr Trump as a "carnival barker" and called on his rivals to denounce their fellow candidate.
"What he said is disqualifying," Mr Earnest said. "Any Republican who's too fearful of the Republican base to admit it has no business serving as president, either."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel