GREAT BRITAIN, Jan. 5, 2016 (Gephardt Daily) — In mid-January, the British Parliament will debate whether to ban Donald Trump from the United Kingdom for his comments about Muslims.
A House of Commons committee meeting in London on Tuesday announced that its members will debate the Trump issue on Jan. 18. The committee’s decision came in response to a petition calling for a Trump ban over his proposal to temporarily halt the entry of Muslims into the United States.
More than half a million people signed the ban petition. More than 40,000 others signed a separate petition saying the Republican presidential candidate should be allowed to visit the country.
Steve Double, a member of Parliament, told BuzzFeed News: “We had two petitions, one which said ban Trump from the country and another which said let him in.”
“It’s a very interesting point — how do we, as an open democracy, deal with people who say things we perhaps don’t agree with,” Double said. “My personal view is that we shouldn’t ban people like Donald Trump but we should have the confidence to stand up for what we believe in, have an open debate and defend the views in open debate.”
Trump has argued that any Muslim ban would be temporary, until the government could determine how to best address the threat of terrorism.
In previous interviews, Prime Minister David Cameron has called Trump’s comments about banning Muslims from traveling to the U.S. “divisive, stupid and wrong,” but Cameron reportedly does not think Trump should be banned from Great Britain.
