Story highlights "Donald Trump sounds more like the leader of a lynch mob than a great nation like ours," says one Muslim critic

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson visits a mosque in Virginia

(CNN) American Muslims rejected Donald Trump's proposal for the United States to bar Muslims from entering the country, calling it "reckless" and "un-American" and predicting that it will be used as a recruiting tool for extremist groups such as the Islamic State.

"Donald Trump sounds more like the leader of a lynch mob than a great nation like ours," said Nihad Awad, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

The GOP front-runner is "playing into the hands" of ISIS, Awad said, by turning Americans against each other.

Trump, who has previously called for surveillance against mosques and said he was open to establishing a database for all Muslims living in the United States, made his latest controversial call in a news release.

His message comes in the wake of a deadly mass shooting in San Bernardino, California, by suspected ISIS sympathizers and the day after President Barack Obama asked the country not to "turn against one another" out of fear.

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