Washington, Dec 17 (NDTV): Ted Cruz, the Republican presidential candidate with the second highest rating, has refuted Donald Trump's call for a "total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States," by saying, "Muslims in India are peaceful."

"I am reminded of what FDR's grandfather said. He said all horse thieves are Democrats, but not all Democrats are horse thieves," Mr Cruz, 44, said, elaborating, "there are millions of peaceful Muslims across the world in countries like India." He went on to say countries like India are not seeing problems that "we are seeing in nations that are controlled by Al Qaeda or ISIS" and that the focus should be to "defeat radical Islamic terrorism."

The remarks were made at the last Republican presidential debate of 2015, hosted by CNN in Las Vegas.

As per the 2011 census, India has over 172 million Muslims, constituting over 14 per cent of the country's population. By 2050, India is expected to have 311 million Muslims which will make it the country with the world's largest Muslim population.

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump had called for a shutdown of Muslims entering the US "until our country's representatives can figure out what is going on." Mr Trump's proposal came in the wake of shootings in San Bernardino, California, in which a Muslim couple killed 14 people in what is the deadliest terror attack on America since 9/11.

"Until we are able to determine and understand this problem and the dangerous threat it poses, our country cannot be the victims of horrendous attacks by people that believe only in jihad, and have no sense of reason or respect for human life," Mr Trump had said in a statement, which was widely condemned.