More than 210,000 people have signed a petition to ban Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump from entering the United Kingdom following the candidate’s latest call to ban Muslims from entering the U.S.
Brits Want to Ban Trump
Trump, in another stroke of diplomacy, criticizes Time’s selection of German Chancellor Angela Merkel as Person of the Year.
Ty Wright / Getty Images
The petition calls on Parliament to keep the real estate mogul-turned-politician from setting foot in the British Isles, noting that others — including the head of the Westboro Baptist Church and Ku Klux Klan officials — have been banned for fostering extremism or hatred.
“If the United Kingdom is to continue applying the ‘unacceptable behaviour’ criteria to those who wish to enter its borders, it must be fairly applied to the rich as well as poor, and the weak as well as powerful,” the petitioners write.
The U.K.’s home secretary has the power to ban individuals whose presence is deemed “not conducive to the public good.” And the initiative has gained support from politicians, including Green Party leader Natalie Bennett, according to the BBC.
Trump called for a “total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the U.S.” earlier this week, in response to the mass killings in San Bernardino, Calif. The FBI said the two attackers had been radicalized “for quite some time.”
The candidate’s proposal has drawn criticism from within his own party, with Republican opponents Jeb Bush calling his opponent “unhinged” and House Speaker Paul Ryan decrying the remarks, saying, “This is not what this party stands for.”
Trump, meanwhile, turned his Twitter attention to Time magazine, which he criticized for selecting German Chancellor Angela Merkel as its Person of the Year. The German leader has gone out of her way to welcome Syrian refugees and migrants, agreeing to accept one million by the end of this year.
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/674587800835092480
The presidential hopeful, who’s decidedly less welcoming to immigrants than Merkel, was among Time’s finalists, who also included transgender former Olympian Caitlyn Jenner, Uber CEO Travis Kalanick and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
This article originally appeared on Recode.net.
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