Ben Carson says idea 'would create a pretty dangerous precedent,' John Kasich says remark shows Trump 'trying to divide people'

Jeb Bush denounced the proposal as 'abhorrent' and Ted Cruz accused him of violating the First Amendment

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump came under intense fire today for saying he would force Muslims to register in the wake of the Paris attacks.

He was branded 'abhorrent' and accused of creating a 'toxic environment' for Muslims after he voiced support for the idea.

Comparisons were immediately made to the registration of Jews in Nazi Germany by one Muslim group.

'I would certainly implement that. Absolutely,' Trump told an NBC News reporter between campaign events in Newton, Iowa, according to video posted on MSNBC.com.

He said Muslims would be signed up at 'different places,' adding: 'It would just be good management... It's all about management.'

Asked whether registering would be mandatory, Trump responded: 'They have to be.'

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Support: This is the moment Donald Trump voiced backing for a register of Muslims. Asked whether registering would be mandatory, Trump responded: 'They have to be.'

Trump's campaign posted this tweet Friday morning

Trump also told NBC, 'There should be a lot of systems, beyond databases. We should have a lot of systems.'

But he retreated quickly Friday morning, posting a note on his Twitter page that said, 'I didn't suggest a database - a reporter did. We must defeat Islamic terrorism & have surveillance, including a watch list, to protect America.'

That tweet came as Trump was under immediate fire from his own party on Friday.

Jeb Bush, his Republican rival for the White House, called the database suggestion 'abhorrent', Breitbart reported. Ben Carson and Ted Cruz said they oppose religious registries. John Kasich criticized the front-runner for trying to 'divide people'.

What else can you compare this to except to prewar Nazi Germany? Ibrahim Hooper, national spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations

'That's just wrong,' Bush added said on CNBC on Friday. 'It's manipulating people's angst and their fears. That's not strength. That's weakness.'

Carson, speaking on the campaign trail in Concord, N.H., called for a national database on 'everybody who comes into this country,' but said focusing on Muslims is wrong.

'I don’t think it’s a good idea to treat anybody differently. One of the hallmarks of America is that we treat everybody the same,' Carson said, adding that picking out individual groups sets aa pretty dangerous precedent, I believe.'

Cruz, at a media availability in Sioux City, Iowa, called himself 'a big fan of Donald Trump's but I'm not a fan of government registries of American citizens.'

He said the move would interfere with the First Amendment.

'The First Amendment protects religious liberty and I’ve spent the past several decades defending the religious liberty of every American,' Cruz said.

Even former Defense Secretary Robert Gates piled on, telling Fox News on Friday that creating a national registry for Muslims would be 'a terrible mistake.'

On the rack: Donald Trump was on the stump in South Carolina today as rivals from his own party laid into his plan to register every Muslim

Trump at Friday's rally in Spartanburg, South Carolina

Kasich, whose Super PAC is launching a $2.5 million series of attacks against Trump, said the proposal proved the real estate mogul was not worthy of the White House.

'The idea that someone would have to register with the federal government because of their religion strikes against all that we have believed in our nation’s history,' Kasich said in a statement.

'It is yet another example of trying to divide people, one against the other. Donald Trump is unable to unite and lead our country.'

Ibrahim Hooper, national spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said he was 'at a loss for words' after hearing Trump's plan, adding: 'What else can you compare this to except to prewar Nazi Germany?'

The Muslim-American group also accused Trump - and Carson, who has compared refugees to 'rabid dogs' - of creating a 'toxic environment'.

The latest comments come less than a week after the deadly attacks on a concert hall, sports stadium and restaurants in Paris.

They have elevated fears of terrorism across the U.S. and prompted calls for new restrictions on Syrian refugees fleeing their war-torn country.

While some of his rivals have been chastised by the president for suggesting that Christian Syrian refugees be given preference over Muslims, Trump has gone further in his rhetoric, advocating new restrictions on civil liberties and enhanced surveillance activities, including inside mosques.

He said earlier this week that the country was 'going to have no choice' but to close certain mosques because 'really bad things are happening, and they're happening fast.'

Protesters rallied in Olympia, Washington, today calling for tighter restrictions on refugees allowed to enter the United States.

They held placards calling for refugees to be turned away from the US, saying veterans should be cared for first.

They were met by a counter-demonstration welcoming refugees and chanting 'racists go home'.

Protesters rallied in Olympia, Washington, today calling for tighter restrictions on refugees allowed to enter the United States

Rally: They held placards calling for refugees to be turned away from the US, saying veterans should be cared for first

They were met by a counter-demonstration welcoming refugees and chanting 'racists go home'

The first reference to the database idea came in an interview with Yahoo News published earlier Thursday in which the billionaire real estate mogul did not reject the idea of requiring Muslims to register in a database or giving them special identification cards noting their religion.

'We're going to have to - we're going to have to look at a lot of things very closely,' Trump told Yahoo News.

He also suggested he would consider warrantless searches, according to the outlet, saying: 'We're going to have to do things that we never did before.'

Asked by reporters Thursday night to explain his Yahoo comments, Trump suggested his response had been misconstrued. 'I never responded to that question,' he said.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations issued a statement Thursday condemning Trump for what the group described as 'Islamophobic and unconstitutional' comments targeting American Muslims and Syrian refugees.

They also criticized Carson, who on Thursday compared blocking potential terrorists posing as Syrian refugees from entering the U.S. to handling a rabid dog.

The New York billionaire has remained at the top of the Republican presidential field in almost every national poll since late July

Friday's Trump event was a town hall forum at Wofford College

His words were a reaction to debates surrounding Syrian asylum seekers (pictured) and terrorism concerns

'If there's a rabid dog running around in your neighborhood, you're probably not going to assume something good about that dog,' Carson told reporters at a campaign stops in Alabama. 'It doesn't mean you hate all dogs, but you're putting your intellect into motion.'

'By mainstreaming Islamophobic and unconstitutional policies, Donald Trump and Ben Carson are contributing to an already toxic environment that may be difficult to correct once their political ambitions have been satisfied,' CAIR's Robert McCaw said in a statement.

Trump was in Iowa Thursday for a televised question-and-answer session hosted by WHO-TV at the Des Moines Area Community College.

Trump arrived at the interview eight minutes late, forcing hosts to ad-lib as they awaited his arrival live on air.

Many in the audience were former employees of a Maytag plant that shut down in 2007 and the questions focused on economic issues, including how a Trump White House would help low-income workers pay for skills-training necessary to find new jobs.

'Well, one of the things that I see in this country is a lot of people have lost hope, they've lost their spirit, they've lost their mojo, you know, to go out and go to the community college,' Trump responded.

'We can talk economics, we can talk everything, but one of the things is we have to give people their spirit back, we have to give people hope.'

At a rally afterward, Trump again railed against accepting Syrian refugees, professed his love for Iowa and took a few shots at his fellow candidates.

He said Carson's campaign was in 'freefall' and said Sen. Marco Rubio 'never shows up to vote because he's campaigning.'

Before he left, Trump spent about fifteen minutes shaking hands and taking photos on a rope line. He also ordered pizza from Dominos to feed the entire crowd.

The White House has not commented on the plan. The president was in Malaysia when the comments were made and his spokesman was asked a series of questions by travelling White House reporters but none asked about the Trump comments.