Paris Aftermath: US Presidential Hopefuls Stoke Passion Against Refugees

New York: The Paris massacre is influencing the US presidential race with Republican right stoking passion and hardening the anti-minority stance.

Though US President Barack Obama took a humane approach on refugee issue, Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump on Monday said he would now "strongly consider" shutting down certain mosques in the country.

In a televised interview to an American channel MSNBC, the presidential front-runner said, "I would hate to do it but it's something that you're going to have to strongly consider because some of the ideas and some of the hatred, the absolute hatred, is coming from these areas... a lot of talk is going on at the mosques."

More than half the country's governors have already pledged to block the entry of Syrian refugees into their states, saying the safety of Americans was at stake and Bobby Jindal, the Indian-American Governor of Louisiana and another presidential hopeful, signed an executive order to stop Syrian refugees.

Not to be left behind, Texas Senator Ted Cruz called for a "religious test", saying the US should bar Muslim refugees but let Syrian Christians enter, arguing that there is "no meaningful risk of Christians committing acts of terror".

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New Jersey Governor Chris Christie told a radio show host that the United States should not take in any Syrian refugees, not even "orphans under the age of 5."

US President Barack Obama told reporters at the G20 meet in Turkey, "The people who are fleeing Syria are the most harmed by terrorism, they are the most vulnerable as a consequence of civil war and strife. They are parents, they are children, they are orphans. And it is very important...that we do not close our hearts to these victims of such violence and somehow start equating the issue of refugees with the issue of terrorism."

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Only 1,500 Syrian refugees have been accepted into the United States since 2011 and the US has already seen flak on accepting only 10,000 refugees in 2016, a far lower figure than others such as Germany which has committed to taking in more than 800,000, but now that number might be even lower.