Donald Trump's call for a
"total and complete shutdown" of Muslims coming into the United States would be an "absolute violation of the First Amendment of the Constitution," former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani said Tuesday.
"You cannot use religion as a basis for discriminating, and honestly, there's no factual basis on which to assume that the vast majority of Muslims are terrorists," Giuliani told
Fox News' "Fox & Friends" program.
Also, said Giuliani, making religion a distinguishing factor does not have a "reasonable basis."
"Look at the stats," he said. "How many Muslims are there in the world? And what percentage are terrorists? A minuscule percentage
. . . You couldn't possibly get away with this."
Giuliani said that he thinks Trump's comments are "very bad timing" because they take focus off President Barack Obama's "abysmal" speech on Sunday, "in which I've never seen a president show less leadership. It's taking focus off the fact that Obama has no plan, doesn't seem to know what he's doing. And will not stay the words Islamic terrorism."
And by not making the distinction, he continued, Obama is hurting Muslims, "just like Italians that wouldn't make the distinction between Mafia and not Mafia were hurting all Italians."
Trump's comments appeal to an emotion, Giuliani said, as people are afraid.
"But the answer to it is not a religious test for coming into the United States of America," he said. "When the pilgrims left England that ended. That was gone. And honestly, there is no basis for discriminating against Muslims. No reasonable basis for doing it, but the vast majority of Muslims are peaceful, completely integrated Americans. They've been here for 150 years."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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