JOSÉ DÍAZ-BALART (HOST): So, setting aside for the time being the legality of Trump's plan, how are his words echoing, not only here in the United States but throughout the world?
NIHAD AWAD: Hateful. He's making America look bad around the world, very unpresidential. He's expressing anger more than policy or measured thinking, and I think Americans do not expect someone who wants to assume the highest office in the land to be a hot temper, to be very angry, just to express hatred towards minorities like Mexicans, African-Americans, people with disabilities, and Muslims. This is the last thing America needs is a person who projects America as hateful, as someone who is anti-immigrant, and he forgot that America is the land of immigration and the land of immigrants. So unfortunately his words are damaging the brand of the Republican Party. And they just have to catch him. They have to denounce him roundedly and immediately. Because unfortunately, as I said, he's causing division, not unity, and that's the time of unity, especially after the terrorist attack, we all become concerned and we need leaders who will unify the nation, but who will not exploit fear and become just a fearmongerer.
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AWAD: What ISIS wants from us as Americans is to turn against one another. And that's why I say Donald Trump is playing into the hands of ISIS and he's doing them a huge service by just helping them recruit, by alienating American Muslims and Muslims worldwide. This is the last thing America needs.
DÍAZ-BALART: Some people like Trump and others say, well, the Muslim community needs to be more engaged in fighting against this, you know, radical Islamic terrorism, that the Muslim community is not doing enough. That's what they say. What do you say?
AWAD: Not true. The government will say that it has a huge partnership with the Muslim community nationwide and with Muslims around the world. You know, let's remember that the vast majority of the victims of ISIS are Muslim. And Muslims are the main ones who are fighting ISIS since its beginning. So for Donald Trump to paint the entire Muslim world and Muslim community and Muslims Americans here with one stroke is reprehensible and irresponsible.
