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London – US presidential hopeful Donald Trump yesterday said Muslims were “absolutely not reporting” suspected attackers in an interview with British television following the Brussels attacks.
“I would say this to the Muslims, and in the United States also, when they see trouble they have to report it,” Trump told ITV television, a day after triple blasts killed some 30 people at Brussels airport and on the city’s metro system.
“They’re not reporting it, they’re absolutely not reporting it and that’s a big problem,” said Trump, who is the favourite to win the Republican nomination for the US presidential election on November 8.
“It’s like they are protecting each other but they are really doing very bad damage . . . They have to open up to society, they have to report the bad ones,” he told interviewer Piers Morgan.
Trump’s comments were immediately rejected by the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB), which represents hundreds of mosques and charities, and by one of Britain’s top counter-terrorism officers, Neil Basu.
“He’s wrong,” Basu, a deputy assistant commissioner at London’s Metropolitan Police, told BBC Radio.
“If we demonise one section of the community that is the worst thing we can do. We’re absolutely playing into the terrorists’ hands of making people feel hate,” he said.
Miqdaad Versi, the MCB’s assistant secretary-general, said Trump’s comments “fuel this idea of bigotry”.
They “really fuel the thing that terrorists themselves want, that Muslims are apart from the West and can’t be seen as equal citizens,” he said.
Trump has drawn controversy before by calling for Muslims to be barred from entering the United States following a deadly shooting attack in San Bernardino, California in December.
Meanwhile, former Florida Governor Jeb Bush endorsed Cruz yesterday for the Republican presidential nomination. “I wanted you all to be the first to know that today I am endorsing Cruz for President,” Bush said in a statement.
“Ted is a consistent, principled conservative who has demonstrated the ability to appeal to voters and win primary contests, including yesterday’s Utah caucus,” Bush said, referring to one of three votes held Tuesday.
Bush, who dropped out of the presidential race last month after a disappointing campaign, said the Republican Party has to unite or face certain defeat in the election, probably to Hillary Clinton.
In doing so he took a pot shot at frontrunner Trump, who leads Cruz comfortably in the polls.
“For the sake of our party and country, we must overcome the divisiveness and vulgarity Donald Trump has brought into the political arena or we will certainly lose our chance to defeat the Democratic nominee, most likely Hillary Clinton, this fall,” the statement said. -AFP.
Online Reporter