Newton, Iowa: Donald Trump, who earlier in the week said he was open to requiring Muslims in the United States to register in a database, said on Thursday night that he "would certainly implement that – absolutely".

Mr Trump was asked about the issue by an NBC News reporter and pressed on whether all Muslims in the country would be forced to register. "They have to be," he said. "They have to be.''

It's all about management. Our country has no management. 

Donald Trump, Republican presidential candidate

When asked how a system of registering Muslims would be carried out – whether, for instance, mosques would be where people could register – Mr Trump said: "Different places. You sign up at different places. But it's all about management. Our country has no management.''

Asked later, as he signed autographs, how such a database would be different from Jews having to register in Nazi Germany, Mr Trump repeatedly said "You tell me" until he stopped responding to the question.

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Both Mr Trump and Ben Carson, the top two Republican presidential candidates in most polls, have made sharply provocative remarks about Muslim refugees from Syria and Iraq, and have been criticised by Muslim groups in the United States.

On Thursday, Dr Carson seemed to equate refugees' seeking entrance to the United States to "a rabid dog running around your neighborhood''. Both Dr Carson's and Mr Trump's remarks came the day the House voted to severely restrict the flow of Syrian and Iraqi refugees into the United States, amid security concerns after the terrorist assaults in Paris.

The New York Times