In this file photo, Republican presidential candidate, businessman Donald Trump, speaks during a rally coinciding with Pearl Harbor Day at Patriots Point aboard the aircraft carrier USS Yorktown in Mt Pleasant, S.C. —AP In this file photo, Republican presidential candidate, businessman Donald Trump, speaks during a rally coinciding with Pearl Harbor Day at Patriots Point aboard the aircraft carrier USS Yorktown in Mt Pleasant, S.C. —AP

DHAKA: Religious leaders in Asia yesterday condemned Donald Trump's inflammatory comments on Muslims, warning that the US presidential hopeful was helping the Islamic State group's cause and diminishing America's global stature. In Bangladesh, Indonesia and Pakistan, together home to more than a third of the world's 1.5 billion followers of Islam, anger at the bouffant billionaire's incendiary proposal to ban Muslims from entering the United States ran high.

Leading Bangladeshi cleric Fariduddin Masud told AFP the remarks fed IS propaganda that sought to depict a grand war between Islam and the West. "By uttering such a hate-spreading statement, Donald Trump has committed a crime by indirectly helping the cause of so-called global Islamist militants such as Islamic State," the chairman of the Jamiatul Ulama Bangladesh, an Islamic scholars council, told AFP.

The Republican frontrunner's remarks came after an apparently radicalized Muslim couple shot dead 14 people at a workplace party in the Californian town of San Bernardino this month. Trump's demand for a moratorium on Muslims entering the United States until politicians "can figure out what was going on" was roundly condemned, although fellow Republican contender Ted Cruz and some conservative commentators praised the call.

In Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation, Zuhairi Misrawi, an Islamic scholar from Muslim organization Nahdlatul Ulama, said the call was "a step backwards for American democracy". "We previously regarded America as a role model for democracy, equality, peace and justice," he said. The controversial candidate's latest outburst came two weeks after he proposed creating a database system in the United States to track Muslims.

Amid fears his comments would fuel extremist violence, the leader of a Pakistani seminary attended by Taleban militants decried the comments as emblematic of Western "aggression" towards Islam. "Trump's statement is part of a strong hatred and grudge against Muslims," Maulana Sami-ul-Haq, who was nominated by the Pakistani Taliban as a negotiator in government peace talks last year, told AFP.

In Indian Kashmir, top separatist leader Syed Ali Geelani described Trump's call as indicative of an "imperialistic and sick mindset". "We strongly condemn the California massacre but the whole Muslim community can't be held responsible for the actions of an individual," he said in a statement.

'Hitler was elected'

Trump's presidential bid has met with widespread ridicule, with the mainstream media struggling to take the former reality TV star seriously and doubting whether he could succeed at the ballot box, despite his popularity in the polls. In India, home to nearly 200 million Muslims, an opinion piece in the leading Times of India newspaper yesterday invoked a warning not to underestimate the businessman, pointing out that Adolf Hitler was an elected leader.

It also called for New Delhi to refuse Trump entry to the country. While reaction on the streets remained muted, outrage at his comments continued to reverberate among Asian Muslims on Facebook and Twitter. Pakistani Facebook user Sanaullah Abro expressed faith in the American voters, writing: "I don't think American people are so stupid to elect him". Yet others voiced fears that even unelected, the comments from a high-profile presidential hopeful would fuel a rise in aggression. "His hate speech will spread violence not only in the United States but also across the globe," a post by Bangladeshi Facebook user Sameer Hassan read.

Meanwhile, Republicans struggled to deal with the fallout from Donald Trump's widely condemned remarks on Muslims Wednesday, worrying the controversial mogul could torpedo their 2016 White House hopes. The party-which hopes to end eight years of Democratic White House rule faces a stark choice between turning on their presidential frontrunner and tethering a 161-year-old brand to the whims of a billionaire many Americans see as a bigot.

Sensing trouble

Trump caused international outrage Monday, when he demanded a ban on Muslims traveling to the United States. He currently leads Republican polls by double digits margins over his nearest rivals. His fellow Republican candidates were among those to condemn that plan, but senior party figures have refused to throw Trump under the bus, or even rule out voting for him.

"I like and respect Donald Trump," said Senator Ted Cruz, who is a favorite of conservative Republicans. "I continue to like and respect Donald Trump. While other candidates in this race have gone out of their way to throw rocks at him, to insult him, I have consistently declined to do so and I have no intention of changing that now."

But sensing trouble, Trump very bluntly warned Republicans he may launch a third party campaign if they move against him. That could all but kill Republicans chances of beating Hillary Clinton, if she is indeed the eventual Democratic nominee. "A new poll indicates that 68 percent of my supporters would vote for me if I departed the GOP (Republicans) and ran as an independent," Trump said in a Facebook post Tuesday.

Months of controversy

According to a USA Today/Suffolk survey published Tuesday, he is supported by 27 percent of Republican likely voters, a level of support that has been fixed through months of controversy. His nearest rival, Cruz, stands on 17 percent, with Senator Marco Rubio on 16. Trump's campaign has thrived on free television and social media exposure garnered by ever-more outlandish remarks.

Party elders have long taken a long view, stressing he has yet to win any nominating elections, which begin in Iowa in just under two months. I "still believe that the majority of GOP, which nominated Romney 4 yrs ago, will not nominate Trump," Tweeted Katie Packer Gage, a key figure in former governor Mitt Romney's election campaign, which saw him win the nomination but lose to Barack Obama. But Republicans are increasingly wondering whether standing behind Trump could also spell political oblivion.

With the United States demographically shifting to become less white, Republicans can scarcely risk further alienating minority voters, who vote Democratic in droves. Trump's comments already in the cycle-and the harsh tone on immigration sounded by others such as Cruz-the party may be more dependent than ever on just the white, conservative and evangelical voters who back Trump.

"The Republicans are in a terrible dilemma," said Larry Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia. "How are they going to bring the energized anti-establishment Trump wing together with the establishment part of the party?" "I don't see the obvious way, other than hatred of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, that's the only thing that can bring them together. "It might be enough. But it might not be." - Agencies