Obama: Ted Cruz's call to secure Muslim neighborhoods is not 'who we are'

President Barack Obama on Wednesday said Texas Sen. Ted Cruz's call to "patrol and secure Muslim neighborhoods" in the wake of the Brussels terror attacks is "contrary to who we are." 

Obama added that it would not help defeat the Islamic State.

"As far as the notion of having surveillance of neighborhoods where Muslims are present, I just left a country that engages in that kind of neighborhood surveillance," Obama said, referring to Cuba, where Cruz's father Rafael was born. 

"The notion that we would start down that slippery slope makes absolutely no sense. it's contrary to who we are, and it's not going to help us defeat [ISIS]," Obama added.

One of the "great strengths" of the United States, Obama said, is the "extraordinarily successful, patriotic, integrated Muslim community."

"Any approach that would single them out or target them for discrimination is not only wrong and un-American, but it also would be counterproductive because it would reduce the strength, the antibodies that we have to resist terrorism," Obama said.

Cruz's plan, released in a statement by both his presidential campaign and Senate office on Tuesday, calls for empowering "law enforcement to patrol and secure Muslim neighborhoods before they become radicalized."

The plan was rebuked swiftly by many, including Muslim groups already wary of Cruz, and the New York Police Department. New York Police Commissioner William Bratton held a news conference on Tuesday, denouncing Cruz as "unfit for the White House."

"I would remind the senator he lives in the United States of America," Bratton said Tuesday. "And the statements he made today is why he’s not going to become president of this country."

Obama also called Cruz's repeated call to call to "carpet-bomb" ISIS "inhumane," saying it could provoke more terror attacks.

"Not only is that inhumane, not only is that contrary to our values, but that would likely be an extraordinary mechanism for ISIL to recruit more people willing to die and explode bombs in an airport or in a metro station," Obama said. "That's not a smart strategy."

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