Donald Trump Just Called for a ‘Complete Shutdown’ on Muslims Entering the US

Donald Trump, the current frontrunner in the US Republican presidential primary race, called for a “total and complete shutdown” of all Muslims coming to the US.

“Without looking at the various polling data, it is obvious to anybody the hatred is beyond comprehension,” Trump said in a press release emailed to the media on Monday afternoon. “Where this hatred comes from and why we will have to determine. Until we are able to determine and understand this problem and the dangerous threat it poses, our country cannot be the victims of horrendous attacks by people that believe only in Jihad, and have no sense of reason or respect for human life.”

Related: Syrian Refugee Families Will Still Come to Texas, Despite Effort to Stop Them

Trump cited a poll from the Center for Security Policy, an organization run by Frank Gaffney, who has been identified by civil rights groups as an anti-Muslim extremist. 

“If I win the election for President, we are going to Make America Great Again,” Trump’s statement added.

Trump’s campaign manager Corey Lewandowski told the Associated Press that the ban would apply to “everybody,” including tourists, immigrants, and refugees. 

Related: Islamophobic Attacks Have Spiked in the US Since the Paris Attacks

This is not the first time that Trump has called for increased restrictions on immigration to the US, although this might be his most extreme “policy statement” yet. After last month’s deadly Paris attacks, Trump called for the creation of a database of all Muslims living in the US and increased government surveillance of mosques. The businessman also spent much of the summer urging for a wall to be built on the US-Mexico border to keep out undocumented immigrants.

A Trump campaign representative did not immediately respond to an inquiry from VICE News asking how exactly the proposed ban on Muslims would be implemented.

The reaction to Trump’s statement from across the political spectrum was swift and generally horrified. 

After the Paris terrorist attacks last month, many other Republican presidential candidates said the US should either reconsider or fully stop accepting Syrian refugees on the basis of security risks. The governors of more than 30 states also quickly said they were not interested in taking in any Syrians. Jeb Bush and Ted Cruz both said the US should screen for Christian Syrian refugees.

Trump is so far the first candidate to call for an all-out ban of Muslims. 

Follow Olivia Becker on Twitter: @obecker928

Watch the VICE News documentary Unsettled: Syrian Refugees In America: