British Muslims are failing to report suspected terrorists, Republican frontrunner Donald Trump has said in his first UK TV interview.
Mr Trump told ITV’s Good Morning Britain that he would also hit Islamic State “so hard you wouldn’t believe it” in the wake of the Brussels terror attacks, and called on British Muslims to report extremists in their midst.
“When they see trouble they have to report it. They are not reporting it. They are absolutely not reporting it and that is a big problem,” he told Piers Morgan, the programme’s presenter.
“I would hit Isis so hard you wouldn’t believe it and I would get the people over there to put up their soldiers because it’s about time that somebody did it,” he added.
“But I would have such back-up like you’ve never seen before in terms of air power, air strikes etc.”
Mr Trump also complained about the failure of Muslims to turn in the San Bernardino attackers before their launched their attack.
“It’s like they are protecting each other but they are really doing very bad damage,” he said, “they have to open up to society, they have to report the bad ones. And, you know, if you report the bad ones, all of a sudden you are not going to have the problems.”
The Republican Presidential nominee frontrunner also rejected accusations of racism, telling the show:
“I’m not ‘anti’ anything; I’m just common sense, I say it like it is.”
“I have great respect for Muslims, I have many friends that are Muslims. I am just saying there is something with a radicalised portion that is very, very bad and very dangerous.”
He also expressed his outrage at the failure of anyone to report the whereabouts of Paris attacker Salah Abdeslam while he was holed up in Brussels.
“There is something wrong, and we have to get to the bottom of it, when someone like who was just captured was really coddled and taken care of by people that live in the neighbourhood.
“Many people knew he was there yet he was the number one fugitive in the world. Everybody from that area knew he was there and nobody turned him in.
“There’s something going on and there’s something wrong. You know it, Piers, and so do I.”
Mr Trump rejected claims that his call to ban Muslims from entering the United States would create division, saying:
“All you have to do is look at the cities where there’s been a large inflow and something’s different.
“There is very little assimilation for whatever reason… they want to go by their own sets of laws.”
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