Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said Saturday that authorities should monitor certain mosques that he said could pose terrorist threats.
"I want surveillance of certain mosques if that's OK,"
Trump told supporters in Birmingham, Ala., CNN reports. "We've had it before."
Trump's remarks doubled down on those earlier this week,
in which he told MSNBC that he would "strongly consider" closing Islamic houses of worship in the United States in light of the Paris attacks.
Referencing 9/11, he also drew parallels between those attacks and the recent terrorist violence in France and the Mideast.
"I watched the World Trade Center go down," Trump said, telling supporters that he saw the Twin Towers fall from New Jersey. "Thousands of people were cheering as the building was coming down."
He also slammed calls for settling Syrian refugees in the United States, which flies in the face of some of his GOP rivals.
"I want surveillance," Trump said, according to CNN. "I will absolutely take [a] database on the people coming in from Syria.
"If we can't stop it — but we are going to if I win — they're coming back."
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