“Trump was widely and correctly criticized for this, accused of wanting to reproduce discriminatory policies like those of prewar Europe, when Jews were forcibly registered. But looking at the timeline of events since the Paris attacks, and indeed in the months before them, it becomes clear that Trump isn’t actually the problem here. Rather, he’s merely indulging a sentiment that was already widespread.
Both Jeb Bush and Ted Cruz had, weeks earlier, called for accepting refugees from Syria only if they are Christian — thus effectively banning Syrian refugees who are Muslim. The distinction between their Muslim-banning plan and Trump’s is largely one of scale, not of kind. Yet the fact that only Trump drew widespread outrage shows how accustomed we have become to out-in-the-open anti-Muslim prejudice in this country, and the extremes that now tolerate.”*
Read more here: http://www.vox.com/2015/12/1/9822452/muslim-islamophobia-trump