Donald Trump said the idea of shutting down mosques should be considered, like some European countries have suggested in the wake of the Paris terrorist attacks.

Appearing on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” on Monday, Trump said, “I would hate” to shut down a mosque “but it’s something that you’re going to have to strongly consider because some of the ideas and some the hatred, the absolute hatred is coming from these areas.”

“And you know, New York City as an example, we had a group of people from what I understand that really knew what they were doing, that were really studying the situation and they’re not doing that anymore under the new mayor, they’re not doing that anymore,” Trump said. “And I think that’s a mistake.”

Later Trump back-peddled his approval of shutting down mosques, saying, “So it’s something that many people, not me, it’s something that many people are considering, and many people are going to do.”

Panelist Chris Jansing, NBC News Senior White House Correspondent asked Trump, “But are you concerned at all about the backlash that can create? And the hatred that can breed,” if mosques are shut down.

Trump responded, “There is already hatred. The hatred is incredible. It’s embedded, it’s embedded. The hatred is beyond belief. The hatred greater than anybody understands and it’s already there. It not like, what, do you think they think we’re great people? It’s already there. It’s a very, very sad situation. And I know so many people, Muslims who are such unbelievably great people and they’re being so badly tarnished by what’s happening now. It’s a shame.”

Host Joe Scarborough then asked Trump, “You would agree, Donald, that this is just a small percentage of these radical Muslims are a small percentage of the entire Muslim population?”

Trump replied, “Yes, but it’s a tremendous amount of horror and damage and vitriol. I mean you look at what’s happening. This is not, this is something that has to be stopped and we have to be very strong, we have to be vigilant and we have to be intelligence. We need to bring back our intelligence agencies and bring them to a much higher level. They’re using the internet better than we are.”

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