Washington: Republican presidential presumptive nominee Donald Trump today called for vigilance on Muslims and mosques in the US, a day after an Afghan-origin gunman killed 49 people at an Orlando nightclub in the deadliest shooting in American history.
“We need much better intelligence gathering information. We need intelligence gathering centers, because the people in the communities where these people are, they know there’s something off. They know there’s something going on,” he said.
“We need intelligence gathering. We have to look at the mosques. We have to look at the community. And believe me, the community knows the people that have potential for blow up,” said Trump, who has been criticised for advocating a ban on Muslim immigrants.
Citing the example of last year’s San Bernardino shooter, Trump said there were bombs all over his apartment floor. “You’re going to find that with this mad man (Orlando shooter). People in the area, the people in the neighborhood, they know there’s something off with him, and they don’t report them to the police,” he told CNN.
“This is much different, than when we fight a war with Germany or with Japan, and they have uniforms,” Trump said. “It’s an enemy without a uniform, George. It’s very dangerous. We’re fighting an enemy without a uniform,” Trump told ABC.
In response to a question, Trump told the CNN that this is going to be “pure intelligence gathering, and people… Muslims, where they are, they have to report these people. Otherwise it’s going to be a bigger, bigger problem.”
Defending his view on right to carry fire arm, Trump said things could have been different if there were other people in the club carrying guns. “If you had some guns in that club the night that this took place, if you had guns on the other side, you wouldn’t have had the tragedy that you had,” he said.
“If people in that room had guns with the bullets flying in the opposite direction right at him… right at his head, you wouldn’t have had the same tragedy that you ended up having. And nobody even knows how bad that tragedy is, because I think probably the numbers will get bigger and bigger and worse and worse. I hear the injured are so gravely injured,” he asserted.
Pushing for increased surveillance, he said this is the case of intelligence gathering, information. “Many people that knew him felt that he was a whack job, he something like this would have happened. I already hear it starting to happen of people that knew him, the ex-wife and other people,” he said.
“They don’t report them. For some reason, the Muslim community does not report people like this. So, we do have two different standards. We have people that live here and have become radicalized and have been radicalized,” he said.
PTI