Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump has provoked condemnation from across the political spectrum, by saying Muslims should be banned from entering the US.
Republicans, Democrats, Muslim leaders, the UN and foreign leaders criticised the call as dangerous and divisive.
Mr Trump said many Muslims nursed a "hatred" towards America.
He said they should be banned "until our country's representatives can figure out what is going on".
His campaign manager said that would apply to "everybody" - would-be immigrants and tourists. But Mr Trump
told Fox News it would "not apply to people living in the country", adding that Muslims serving in the US military would "come home".
Mr Trump's statement was delivered as the US comes to terms with its deadliest terror attack since 9/11.
Last week a Muslim couple, believed to have been radicalised, opened fire and killed 14 people at a health centre in San Bernardino.
Mr Trump's proposed ban prompted a horrified reaction from Republicans and others.
Rival candidate Jeb Bush called Mr Trump "unhinged" , while former US Vice-President Dick Cheney said it "goes against everything we stand for and believe in".
Mr Trump's comments were contrary to US values and its national security interests, a statement from the White House said.
White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest later challenged the Republican party to denounce the leading candidate, and said that the proposal "disqualifies him from serving as president".
Mr Earnest said that the Trump campaign had a "dustbin of history" quality to it, calling the candidate a "carnival barker" with "fake hair ".
The UK's Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron said they were "divisive, unhelpful and quite simply wrong".
"These are not just words... Trump and Carson's mainstreaming of Islamophobia in the election is inciting discrimination, hate crimes, violent attacks against Muslims and mosques."
The pro-Jewish Anti-Defamation League
said the plan was "deeply offensive and runs contrary to our nation's deepest values.
"In the Jewish community, we know all too well what can happen when a particular religious group is singled out for stereotyping and scapegoating."
Mr Trump took part in heated interviews on several US television networks on Tuesday, defending the proposal and saying it was temporary measure to prevent "many more World Trade Centers"
A handful of supporters backed Mr Trump online, with controversial conservative commentator Ann Coulter tweeting: "GO TRUMP, GO!
Mr Trump's statement to reporters on Monday said polling by the Center for Security Policy , a conservative think-tank, suggested that 25% of Muslims in the US believed violence against America was justified.
"Without looking at the various polling data, it is obvious to anybody the hatred is beyond comprehension. Where this hatred comes from and why, we will have to determine.
"Until we [do]... our country cannot be the victims of horrendous attacks by people that believe only in jihad."
www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-35037701