We Have to Look at Mosques and Move to Shut Them Down Over ‘Hatred’: Trump Calls for Tougher Scrutiny

Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump on Monday morning suggested the U.S. should re-consider scrutinizing mosques that promote ‘hatred,’ in the wake of last week’s deadly terrorist attacks in Paris.

In a phone interview with MSNBC’s ‘Morning Joe’ program, Trump recalled how mosques in New York City were monitored for a while immediately after the September 2001 terrorist attacks.

The lack of any such scrutiny these days led to the attacks in France that killed at least 129 people, the billionaire candidate said.

‘You’re going to have to watch and study the mosques because a lot of talk is going on at the mosques,’ Trump said.

‘From what I heard, in the old days, meaning a while ago, we had great surveillance going on in and around mosques in New York City and I understand our mayor totally cut that out.’

Asked whether that could include forcibly closing mosques that are found to be promoting radical Islamic ideas, Trump said yes.

‘I would hate to do it, but it’s something that 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,’ he said.

Last year the New York Police Department closed down a controversial program that monitored potential terror networks at mosques in and around New York City.

Over the weekend, France’s interior minister suggesting the shuttering of ‘mosques where hate is preached,’ as French authorities believe several of the Paris attackers were indoctrinated into radicalism in Belgium and had ties to the Islamic State terror army.

On Sunday, France pounded ISIS sites in Syria in retaliation for the Paris attacks, targeting the city of Raqqa that the terrorist army claims as its capital.

As of Monday, 150 anti-ISIS raids had been carried out in France and Belgium, and a massive manhunt was on for the sole survivor of the eight suspected attackers.

Also on Monday, French President Francois Hollande said ‘France is at war,’ in only the third address to a joint session of the country’s Legislature in the past 168 years.

Hollande went on to call Syria ‘the largest factory of terrorism the world has ever known.’

In a new video released Monday, ISIS threatened future strikes throughout the world, including an attack on Washington.

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