NOTE: Faculty, if you are interviewed and quoted by news media, or if your work has been cited, and you have an online link to the article or video, please let us know. Contact us at news@csusb.edu.
Brian Levin, CSUSB terrorism expert, interviewed as part of a segment on the attacks on two mosques in New ZealandMSNBCMarch 15, 2019 On the program “Deadline White House,” Brian Levin, director of Cal State San Bernardino’s Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism, was joined by the Rev. Al Sharpton, Axios’ Jonathan Swan, The New York Times’ Nick Confessore, and The Wall Street Journal’s Shelby Holliday on a segment about President Trump’s response to the March 15 terrorist attack in New Zealand. Watch the online video at “Following the massacre in NZ, Trump says ‘I don't really’ see white nationalists as a threat.”
CSUSB professor discusses New Zealand terror attack with radio talk show host Peter TildenKABC Radio (Los Angeles)March 15, 2019 Brian Levin, director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at Cal State San Bernardino, was on the Peter Tilden show’s 7 p.m. segment to discuss the March 15 terrorist attack in New Zealand in which at least 50 people were killed at two mosques. The nearly 19-minute interview ranged from President Trump’s comments on the attack and white nationalism, the influence of social media and video games, copy-cat attacks, to how people are being radicalized online. Listen to the podcast of the interview at “Peter Tilden 3/15/19 - 7pm.”
News radio station interviews CSUSB professor for his analysis on the March 15 New Zealand terror attackKCBS Radio (San Francisco)March 16, 2019 The San Francisco all-news radio station interviewed Brian Levin, director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at Cal State San Bernardino, about the March 15 terrorist attack in New Zealand. The interview ranged from the influence of video games to the rise of white nationalists as a growing threat to commit similar attacks worldwide. Listen to the segment at “KCBS-AM (Radio)Saturday, March 16, 2019.”
CSUSB professor interviewed for article, ‘New Zealand massacre shines light on threat of far-right extremism worldwide’Daily Breeze/Southern California News GroupMarch 15, 2019 The mass shooting in Christchurch, New Zealand, which left 49 dead and many others injured, is a reminder that far-right, white supremacist ideology — which was linked to an overwhelming majority of violent extremist murders in the United States in 2017 — is the “most prominent and ascendant threat not just in the United States, but around the world,” a Southern California expert who studies hate and extremism said Friday. A 74-page manifesto posted online by the 28-year-old man charged with the mass shooting read like a “cut-and-pasted scrapbook taken out of the neo-Nazi, white nationalist world,” said Brian Levin, director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at Cal State San Bernardino. “Far right extremists “Far right extremists are the fastest growing and prominent threat in the United States,” he said. Levin said he was shocked by President Donald Trump’s statements during a White House press conference, Friday, that he doesn’t think white nationalists are a growing threat around the world. While Trump called the incident a terror attack and sent a sympathetic message of support to New Zealand’s prime minister, he shrugged off a question about white nationalism. “I think it’s a small group of people that have very, very serious problems,” he said. “It’s certainly a terrible thing.” Levin said he found those comments “appalling.” “I’m in complete disbelief that the president can be so misguided on a critical national security issue,” he said. “I do not understand what fact, if any, the president bases his contentions upon. This is not what we, as analysts in this field, have found.” Levin also said the United States is not immune from a similar an attack. “We have a variety of anonymous stealth ticking time bombs in the U.S. that could do the very same thing tomorrow,” he said, referring to individuals who are radicalized online. “This movement is a more fragmented, leaner, meaner one where people are getting radicalized not in local groups, but over the Internet and using acts of violence as propaganda. Loners are being called to act out with the propaganda of a deed. It’s a marketing tool intertwined with social media.” Read the complete article at “New Zealand massacre shines light on threat of far right extremism worldwide.”
White extremism increases during times of demographic changes, and bigotry is mainstreamed into public policy debates, CSUSB professor saysKCRW (Los Angeles)/NPRMarch 15, 2019 As part of its coverage of the March 15 terrorist attack on two New Zealand mosques, the National Public Radio program Morning Edition interviewed Brian Levin, director of Cal State San Bernardino’s Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism. In the U.S. the Anti-Defamation League reported that ideologically motivated extremists killed 50 people last year; only one was blamed on an Islamic extremist. And therein lies another widespread and dangerous misconception, says Levin. 'This threat of homegrown, far-right-wing white nationalism, terrorism and extremism is the most prominent threat,' he says. Since 2015, Levin says, Islamist extremism directed at Westerners has dropped dramatically — that movement has splintered as white extremism has strengthened. This is also occurring at a time when demographics are changing, Levin says, and there has been a 'mainstreaming of bigotry' into public policy debates in the U.S. and around the Western world. 'And during these periods of polarization, and when there is declining trust in communal institutions, who gets targeted? Immigrants, foreigners, people of color and Jews,' Levin says. Levin is calling for better coordination among law enforcement agencies on this growing threat. He also thinks Congress should investigate and devote more resources to it. Levin and others say political rhetoric from leaders such as President Trump is doing little to help the situation. Read the complete article and listen to the online audio report at “A 'mainstreaming of bigotry' as white extremism reveals its global reach.”
White nationalism ‘is the most prominent extremist threat’ in U.S. and worldwide, CSUSB terrorism expert saysDaily Mail (United Kingdom)/Agence France-PresseMarch 15, 2019 The newspaper picked up the global news service’s report on the March 15 New Zealand terrorist attacks on two mosques. That report included an interview with Brian Levin, director of Cal State San Bernardino’s Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism, who said white nationalism is posing a broader international threat than Islamic extremism. 'White nationalism and far-right extremism is the most prominent extremist threat facing the United States today, and indeed it is a worldwide phenomenon,' said Levin. 'These folks fear demographic change. They use the term white genocide,' he said. Read the complete article at “White nationalist movement spreads, pushing lone-wolf attacks.”
CSUSB professor quoted in article about New Zealand terrorist suspectThe San Diego Union-Tribune/Los Angeles TimesMarch 15, 2019 An article about the accused man who authorities say went on a terrorist rampage at two Christchurch, New Zealand, mosques on March 15 included an interview with Brian Levin, director of Cal State San Bernardino’s Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism. The Christchurch suspect also asserted he was not a Nazi but written on a rifle that’s seen in the gunman’s livestreamed video is the number 14 — a reference to a white supremacist slogan conceived by neo-Nazi David Lane, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center. “What it represents,” said Levin, “is the ease that these kinds of tropes can be transferred internationally now.” Read the complete article at “New Zealand mosque suspect linked to white nationalist internet manifesto.”
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