A majority of American adults oppose Donald Trump's plan to temporarily ban Muslims from entering the country, but Republican primary voters are split evenly, a new poll shows. Trump's proposal is opposed by 58 percent of U.S. adults and supported by 36 percent, according to a CBS News poll released Friday.
The survey was sparked by controversial statements made by Republican front-runner Donald Trump in response to the deadly attack last week by a radicalized Muslim couple in which 14 people were left dead.
There are, however, stark differences along ideological lines, the survey indicates. The results showed that 54 percent of Republicans said Trump's proposal was a good idea, while 38 percent said it was not. Among Democratic respondents, 73 percent opposed Trump's proposal and just 23 percent were in favor of it. Independents still largely opposed the proposal at 59 percent, while 35 percent supported it.
The same survey also asked whether they would favor or oppose a federal database keeping track of Muslim names, Politico reported. Respondents were split, with 44 percent supporting and 46 percent opposing. Along party lines, roughly 60 percent of Republicans would back such an effort, compared to just 31 percent of Democrats who said they would do the same.
The results largely reflect a poll released Thursday by NBC News and The Wall Street Journal. That poll also found an urban-rural divide, as well. Only 13 percent of urban respondents and 27 percent of suburban respondents back Trump's plan, while 41 percent of rural Americans supported it.
American Muslims organizations are increasingly alarmed over the comments made by Trump. Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, told The Independent that a significant portion of Americans are "actively hostile to Islam."
“When you’ve got the leading Republican presidential candidate spewing bigotry and gain support because of it, you wonder if it’s 1933, not 2015,” said Hooper, referring to the year that the Nazi Party gained almost 100 seats, winning nearly half of the parliamentary spots.
