Slashdot Mirror


Donald Trump Obliquely Backs a Federal Database To Track Muslims

HughPickens.com writes: Philip Bump reports at the Washington Post that Donald Trump confirmed to NBC on Thursday evening that he supports a database to track Muslims in the United States. The database of Muslims arose after an interview Yahoo News's Hunter Walker conducted with Trump earlier this week, during which he asked the Republican front-runner to weigh in on the current debate over refugees from Syria. "We're going to have to do things that we never did before," Trump told Walker. "Some people are going to be upset about it, but I think that now everybody is feeling that security is going to rule." When pressed on whether these measures might include tracking Muslim Americans in a database or noting their religious affiliations on identification cards, Trump would not go into detail — but did not reject the options. Trump's reply? "We're going to have to — we're going to have to look at a lot of things very closely," he said. "We're going to have to look at the mosques. We're going to have to look very, very carefully." After an event on in Newton, Iowa, on Thursday night, NBC's Vaughn Hillyard pressed the point. "Should there be a database system that tracks Muslims here in this country?," Hillyard asked. "There should be a lot of systems, beyond databases" Trump said. "We should have a lot of systems." Hillyard asked about implementation, including the process of adding people to the system. "Good management procedures," Trump said. Sign people up at mosques, Hillyard asked? "Different places," Trump replied. "You sign them up at different places. But it's all about management."

1 of 608 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Godwin by GammaKitsune · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    I have not seen any Democrats proposing anything that even comes close to the things coming out of the Republican party. From the Republicans we see religious tests, attempts to deny rights to specific religions, and now a national registry of Muslims of the exact same sort that Hitler used against the Jews. It's very fashionable to pretend that "both sides are equally as bad", but we need to take a long, hard look at the reality of the situation. And it's only one side of the American political spectrum that's pushing for all-out fascism.

    --
    Gamertag: WyleType