United States President Donald Trump on Sunday defended his decision to issue an executive order restricting the entry of refugees into the country from seven Muslim-majority countries. Taking to Twitter, Trump said the US needed strong borders and “extreme vetting”. “Look what is happening all over Europe and, indeed, the world - a horrible mess!” the president tweeted.

In another tweet, he said that many Christians have been executed in the Middle-East. “We cannot allow this horror to continue!” Trump’s comment comes after a federal judge restrained the government from deporting immigrants detained in airports around the country following the ban order.

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The ban has met with protests at several airports, while eminent leaders have voiced their disagreements with the order. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he would welcome all refugees in his country after the US’ ban, while Iran promised retaliatory measures against the order. Meanwhile, Iraqi leaders called for a ban on Americans in their countries, reported AFP.

Google co-founder and president of Alphabet, Sergey Brin also joined protests at San Francisco International Airport and expressed his disappointment over the order. In a statement to Forbes, Brin said, “I’m here because I’m a refugee.” In a Facebook post on Friday, Nobel peace prize winner Malala Yousafzai said she was “heartbroken” by the order. She asked Trump not to “turn his back on the world’s most defenceless children and families.”

The four-month curb is specific to seven Muslim-majority countries – Iraq, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia and Yemen. “We want to ensure that we are not admitting into our country the very threats our soldiers are fighting overseas,” he had said on Friday. The new order immediately halts a US programme that allows for the relocation of people displaced by war, political oppression, hunger and religious prejudice to the United States.