US Republican presidential candidate John Kasich has blasted his rivals, Donald Trump and Ted Cruz, over their rhetoric against Islam and Muslims.
"Some people say what we ought to do is ban all Muslims from coming into the country," Kasich said during a town hall in La Crosse, Wisconsin on Monday, referring to Trump's proposal without naming the Republican frontrunner.
"Are you Catholic, or are you Muslim?" Kasich asked. "How do you do that?"
The Ohio governor also went on to criticize Cruz, who last week called for authorities to step up their policing of Muslim neighborhoods in the US, following the terrorist attacks in Brussels.
"We're going to start policing the neighborhoods of Muslims?" Kasich asked. "This is just politics."
Kasich pointed that a "tiny percentage" of Muslims in the world are part of a radicalized "group of lunatics and murderers.”
In the wake of the deadly terrorist attacks in Brussels on March 22, Cruz proposed more resources for US police to "patrol and secure Muslim neighborhoods before they become radicalized."
Next day, Cruz doubled down on his call for authorities to monitor American Muslims, despite criticism from top law enforcement officials.
The twin blasts at Brussels Airport and another at a metro station close to the European Union headquarters in the Belgian capital left at least 31 people dead and 250 others wounded.
The Daesh Takfiri group, which was created and funded by the US and its regional allies to destabilize the Middle East region, has claimed responsibility for the attacks.
In December last year, Trump created a furor in the US and around the world by proposing a “total and complete shutdown of Muslims” entering the United States, following a mass shooting in California.
The New York real-estate mogul also called for a database to track Muslims across the United States, and he has also said that the US would have "absolutely no choice" but to close down mosques.