Michael German on Religious Terrorism

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR: These attacks have increased — hate crimes — by about 17 percent in the last look. And particularly against Jewish worshippers and Jewish people, it’s up to 58 percent, compared to about 19 percent when it comes to anti-Islamic attacks. What is going on?

MICHAEL GERMAN, FELLOW, BRENNAN CENTER FOR JUSTICE: Well, I think the big change is the sanctioning of this violence by people in authority. And, obviously, we have President Trump, since he was a candidate, making anti-Muslim comments, anti-immigrant comments, comments that seem to speak to this audience.

And so, when a group like this has the idea that the government is supporting what they are doing, they can be much more active, much more public, much more violent. And so, I think that the biggest difference that we’re seeing today is not just that they are getting the sanction from the highest levels of our government, but that there is a lack of police enforcement of this violence basically around —

AMANPOUR: So, Michael — sorry to interrupt you, but that’s — you know, it’s clearly an accusation and it’s very controversial what you are saying. I mean, you are accusing, as you just said, the highest level of government of sanctioning this kind of violence. I mean, you know, you haven’t heard the president say anything against the Jewish community. I understand with the travel ban and the other things against the Islamic community and et cetera, you know, there is a lot of heated rhetoric and very heated feelings. But why do you think it is that and not just a resurgence of anti-semitism?

GERMAN: Well, keep in mind that according to the manifesto that was allegedly written by this — the person who attacked the synagogue, he acknowledges that he had also attacked a mosque a month before. So, you have to understand that these groups aren’t just focused on one minority group, they are focused on any group that isn’t white. And certainly, the primary focus has long been against the Jewish populations. But since 9/11, it became much more mainstream to be able to criticize Muslims in a way that you couldn’t criticize other groups. And that eventually was picked up on by these groups, and they used that animus to drive people towards their us versus them arguments and how they defined us became very narrow.

And when candidate Trump started running and was clearly defining who the us was and making all others the enemy and threatening to us, what this white supremacist community heard was that this person is supporting our way of thinking.