Having just returned from a trip to Europe, U.S. Sen. Angus King of Maine says he’s concerned about the rhetoric emerging from the GOP presidential campaign that he says seeks to marginalize Muslims.
Briefing reporters on Friday at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, King said that while the U.S. is not immune to a terrorist attack like the one in Brussels earlier this week, he believes that European countries are more susceptible.
“The Muslim community in those countries is much more isolated than it is here,” he says. “They have these large, what amount to, ghettos, which are cauldrons of discontent and frustration, and these people do not feel connected to their societies.”
And King says he’s concerned about some of the rhetoric that’s coming from two of the GOP presidential candidates. Following the attack on Brussels, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas called for increased police patrols in U.S. Muslim neighborhoods. And rival Donald Trump called for a temporary ban on Muslims entering the U.S.
“It’s what ISIS wants. They want the West to marginalize Muslims so that they can go say to the Muslims, ‘See, you can’t live in that Western society. Come join us,’” says King, who serves on the Senate Intelligence Committee “That’s a counter-productive strategy, to isolate and discriminate against a whole class of people because of the actions of a very few. You’re going to wind up with more radicals.”
King also says that ISIS has a strong social media presence, and the U.S. has to do a better job confronting the war of ideas.
