After Donald Trump's call for a "total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States," Gov. Chris Christie dismissed the 2016 GOP front-runner's "ridiculous" and derided it as "the kind of thing that people say when they have no experience and don't know what they're talking about"
TRENTON -- Gov. Chris Christie on Monday said Donald Trump's call for a "total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States" in the wake of the San Bernardino terror attack is "ridiculous," deriding it as "the kind of thing that people say when they have no experience and don't know what they're talking about."
"We do not need to endorse that type of activity, nor should we," Christie said of the proposal by his Republican presidential rival during an appearance on conservative talk radio host Michael Medved's show. "You do not need to be banning Muslims from the country. That's, in my view, that's a ridiculous position and one that won't even be productive."
Christie's campaign tweeted out his full response from the program minutes later.
Full remarks from @MedvedSHOW on @realDonaldTrump statement. pic.twitter.com/GtK8LYQNsF
-- Chris Christie (@ChrisChristie) December 7, 2015
Trump's presidential campaign announced Monday that the Republican front-runner wants a "total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States" until the nation's leaders "can figure out what is going on."
Asked by Medved if Trump's plan could even withstand an inevitable constitutional challenge over what appears to be a clear violation of the First Amendment, Christie answered unequivocally.
"There's no question in my mind (that it wouldn't), but there are folks in this race who don't care about what the law says because they're used to being able to just fire people indiscriminately on television," said Christie, referencing Trump's decade-long stint on NBC's reality television competition, "The Apprentice."
"So, they don't have to worry about laws say or not say," Christie said, adding "...you do not need to be banning Muslims from the country. That's, in my view, that's a ridiculous position and one that won't even be productive."
Before running for president, Christie had offered strenuous defenses of New Jersey Muslims. After 14 Newark mosques were discovered in 2012 to have been put under secret surveillance by the New York Police Department during Christie's time as U.S. Attorney -- and the mosque's congregants were categorized along racial and ethnic lines -- the governor was sharply critical. Christie, who had not been briefed on the spying program while U.S. Attorney or governor, slammed it as "born out of arrogance, or out of paranoia, or out of both."
On the Medved show, Christie made mention of his relationship with New Jersey Islamic religious leaders, which he sought to reassure in the wake of the probe's discovery by establishing a Muslim outreach committee in the state attorney general's office to rebuild trust.
On Monday, one member of the outreach committee, Imam Mustafa El-Amin, of Masjid Ibrahim, a mosque in Newark's South Ward, told NJ Advance Media that he found Trump's remarks "heartbreaking."
"To hear such hateful language being spewed out, especially from the front-runner of the Republican party and from someone who has such high levels of support according to the polls, is outrageous," said El-Amin,who served as a public schools teacher in Newark for more than 30 years.
"I'm a student of history, and it's the language we heard leading up to World War II from the Nazis," he continued. "I am saying that as a Muslim, and I'd be saying that more than likely if I wasn't, too."
El-Amin said he had mixed emotions about Christie's response, which dismissed Trump's proposal, but which stopped short of personally criticizing the mogul, who owns three New Jersey golf courses and whom Christie calls a "friend."
"I appreciate his response and I think it was very strong," El-Amin said. "But I would like to hear him tell Donald Trump to 'shut up and sit down,'" referencing the governor's famously feisty advice to a heckler at the second anniversary of the Hurricane Sandy recovery.
Christie, on late Monday afternoon's broadcast, would only say that "We need to cooperate with peaceful Muslim-Americans, who want to give us intelligence against those who are radicalized," and touted his outreach programs.
"We did this after 9/11, and it was a very impressive approach," the governor said. "I can tell you in New Jersey that we frequently had sources inside mosques in New Jersey that were giving us information that helped us to bring cases and intervene on things that we otherwise wouldn't have know about."
El-Amin agreed, noting that he'd dined with the governor after breaking his Ramadan fast at Drumthwacket on July 24, 2012, and that after he presented Christie with a copy of the Quran, the governor had gladly posed for a picture holding up the holy Islamic text.
"I think the photo reveals how comfortable the governor is with the Muslim community, and how he can differentiate between radical Islam, and the pure faith of Islam," El-Amin said. "This was taken at a time when folks was talking about burning the Quran, Christie had no problem with his taking his picture with one."
But in the current political environment, he said, he'd like to see more of the Christie he dined with in 2012.
"I would love to see the governor, who I can see myself supporting for because he's the best candidate among the Republicans, I would like to see him take an even stronger stand in defense of the Muslim community of New Jersey," El-Amin said. "And I believe he will.
Claude Brodesser-Akner may be reached at cbrodesser@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @ClaudeBrodesser. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook.
