Terror Expert Speaks In South Jersey Of Uptick In ISIS Activity Hours Before Belgium Bombing
GALLOWAY, NJ (CBS) -- The terrorist bombings in Belgium bring to the forefront experts who have warned for some time that groups like ISIS would step up their murderous campaign. Ironically, one such expert spoke in South Jersey just a few hours before the Brussels bombs were detonated.
Brian Levin, a hate crimes and terror expert at Cal State San Bernardino, spoke at Stockton University not just about the growth of attacks in Europe but concerns that the tide will return to this country.
And he suggests the tone of the current national political campaign isn't helping matters one bit.
"We are going to be hit again," Levin told attendees at a forum sponsored by the Hughes Center for Public Policy, "We do not need a climate that takes the very moderates that we so desperately need in the fight against extremism and marginalizing, degrading and insulting them."
He also looked at the recent carnage in his own town and elsewhere in this country, and suggested those who feel ISIS can't cross the ocean are not thinking ahead.
"Along with England, the Pope and the Vatican, the United States is among their most widely held enemies in their literature," he said. "And they have the most sophisticated web presence we've ever seen with a terrorist entity."
He also warned that violence in this country targeting not only Muslims, but those who appear to be Muslim, tends to spike in the days following a terror attack. Levin cited a recent poll showing 43% of Americans expressed a prejudice against Muslims and criticized the political climate in America in which "leaders are promoting division with incorrect data and encouraging violence."