‘Islam hates the West’, claims Donald Trump

US presidential hopeful Donald Trump has said he believes that Islam hates the West.

“I think Islam hates us,” the Republican billionaire businessman said in an interview with CNN.

“There’s a tremendous hatred. We have to get to the bottom of it. There is an unbelievable hatred of us.”

Asked whether he thought there was a “war between the West and radical Islam” or “war between the West and Islam itself”, Mr Trump replied: “It’s radical, but it’s very hard to define. It’s very hard to separate. Because you don’t know who’s who.”

Meanwhile, Democrat rivals Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders tangled repeatedly in their eighth presidential debate over who was a true advocate for Latinos and who had a track record of letting Hispanics down.

Fighting for Florida and beyond, the two faced off in Miami just six days before Florida gives its verdict on the presidential race.

Hispanic voters have made up about 10% of voters in the Democratic primaries so far this year and Mrs Clinton has been getting about two-thirds of their votes to about one-third for Mr Sanders.

Overall, 691 delegates are at stake on Tuesday, including 99 in Florida, which awards all its delegates to the winner rather than dividing them up proportionately.