"Well, I would hate to do it but it's something you're going to have to strongly consider because some of the ideas and some of the hatred, the absolute hatred, is coming from these areas," Trump said in an interview with MSNBC on Monday, asked about whether he would take such a step if he were president.
"It’s something that many people, not me, but many people are considering and many people are going to do."
The business magnate also said that the government should increase its surveillance of mosques, and that society has to reconsider it relation to civil liberties; "We have to be much tougher."
"We are going to have to give up certain privileges that we've always had."
Trump further criticized New York authorities for ending a covert NYPD surveillance program of Muslim communities there.
.@realDonaldTrump: Need to watch and study mosques, would consider shutting down mosques https://t.co/yxeTgOadUn
— Morning Joe (@Morning_Joe) 16 ноября 2015
Trump' phone interview with MSNBC on Monday.
"You're going to have watch and study the mosques because a lot of talk is going on at the mosques," said Trump.
"I'm not sure it's a fact, but I heard that under the old regime we had tremendous surveillance going on in and around the mosques of New York City and right now that has been totally cut out."
Trump also commented that events in Paris would have ended differently, if citizens there had been armed.
"Had there been other people carrying weapons, you would have had a lot different story, believe me."
The First Amendment to the US Constitution forbids the passage of any law impeding the free exercise of religion. Islam is the fourth-largest religion in in the United States, following Christianity, Judaism and Buddhism.
According to a 2011 Pew Foundation report, 48% of US Muslims say they feel the Republican Party is unfriendly toward them, compared with just 7% who think the Democratic Party is unfriendly toward Muslim-Americans.
