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."

Comments

Unbelievable

[Anonymous Coward]

The cataloging, rounding up, and internment of the Japanese is one of the darkest and frankly most embarrassing chapters in America's history. I can't believe someone is honestly suggesting that we do this again.

Re:Unbelievable

[meglon]

To me it sounds more like having them wear something to single them out... maybe a yellow Star of David, as it worked so well in the past for the last group of fascists.

Re:Unbelievable

[Calibax]

It was against the Constitution to place American citizens of Japanese descent in interment camps without being convicted on any crime back in the second world war. That didn't stop it happening. The Supreme Court even said it was OK back in 1944, in possibly one of the worst decisions in the history of the court.

The people who were held were unable to earn a living and were unable to pay outstanding income taxes or the taxes on their property. Even if they had the money they had no access to it. Their property was seized and sold as a result. Those that survived the camps with a minimum of food and no heath care had lost everything they had worked for by the time they were released after the war. Only a few suggested putting people of German or Italian descent in camps, and they were ignored.

It's a short step from identifying those of a particular religion to government discrimination in travel, jobs, housing or freedom.

Ben Carson was actually right bout something.

[meglon]

http://www.cnn.com/2015/09/30/...

Clearly there could be the rise of a charismatic egomaniac who preys on the fears and hatred of the conservatives, making groups out to be the scapegoats (Muslims, gays, immigrants... at least it's not Jews this time around). Everything Trump says about these groups are the same things that Goebbels and Hitler were saying about Jews. We are witnessing the rise of the radical fascists Europe had to deal with 80 years ago. How in the hell are people so damn fucking stupid not to learn from history?

TIL; Not saying "NO" = "YES"

[flashgordo]

"Trump would not go into detail — but did not reject the options" apparently Not saying "NO" = "YES"

This is getting nuttier by the day

[50000BTU_barbecue]

Lately I've been feeling like I'm in a Philip K Dick novel.

Re:Liberal misinformation

[AnontheDestroyer]

Nope. You're living in your own little fantasy world, sponsored by Rush Limbaugh. Trump explained how he'd sign Muslims up for the database.

The reason this is a good move is because people like you are so delusional you'll give him a pass because you would sooner blame the media than pull your head out of your ass.

Re:Nope.

[sysrammer]

Nonsense. He's a politician. He purposefully obfuscated the answer.

Re:Religon not the problem

[Grishnakh]

The problem is that the whole thing lends itself to "wackadoodles". You have an entire system of belief based on nothing but hearsay, with some ancient goat-herders writing down some oral traditions that have been embellished over generations, and then telling people that this stuff is literal truth. Then people believe this stuff with no evidence for it whatsoever, other than other people reading the same texts and also claiming it's literal truth from God. From there, it's a very small stretch to take some part of that "literal truth" and decide that it really means you need to go murder some people. The Bible after all says that if you have children who disobey you, you're supposed to stone them to death. All these books are full of nonsense like that.

And the "wackadoodles" have been doing this for literally millenia. Christians used to routinely burn people at the stake for being the "wrong" kind of Christian, and interpreting this "word of God" differently.

As long as people believe that some book is the "word of God" then you're never going to get past this stuff. People need to move to actual ethical systems where you can evaluate them based on reason, not superstition.