GOP presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz called Tuesday for deep surveillance of Muslim neighborhoods following the terrorist attacks in Brussels, sparking panic among Muslims living in the United States.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations condemned Cruz’s remarks as unconstitutional and outright said his comments render him unfit for the presidency because of “his call for fascist-like treatment of American Muslims.”

What Cruz said is that it’s “good law enforcement” to carefully observe neighborhoods that may have a high chance of allowing Islamic radicalism to fester.

The devastating atrocities in Brussels prompted Cruz to commend the surveillance program formerly embraced by the New York Police Department.

After 9/11, the department began developing Muslim informants to infiltrate the local Muslim community and observe it for signs of radicalism. But despite the after effects of 9/11 still burnt into the mind of Americans, the program has been shut down due to a litany of lawsuits and accusations of unfair racial profiling.

“New Yorkers want a safe and secure America,” Cruz said. “New Yorkers saw firsthand the tragic consequences of radical Islamic terrorism.”

Trump backed Cruz’s proposal 100 percent in an interview he gave with CNN Tuesday.

One Muslim resident in Minneapolis told The Associated Press that increased surveillance will further alienate Muslims and send them into the arms of terrorist groups.

“I don’t think the ideology of surveillance of a Muslim community neighborhood is the right thing to do. That will send a message that Muslim Americans are not a part of American society … and that’s the message that terrorism groups are willing to hear.”

Executive director of the Arab American Association of New York Linda Sarsour told The Associated Press she is scared of armed vigilantes “who are emboldened by the commentary from people like Ted Cruz and Donald Trump.”

“What’s scaring me more is the kind of potential fueling of these vigilantes and people who might want to take up arms and go patrol Muslim neighborhoods,” she said.

The Anti-Defamation League declared that “demonizing all Muslims is a misguided and counterproductive response to the terrorist threat posed by those motivated by a radical interpretation of Islam.” ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt compared Cruz’s proposal to the internment of 100,000 Japanese-Americans during World War II.

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