brian levin, you actually stepped in to shield klan leader bill quigg from being assaulted.or our radio viewers, we're showing scenes of the melee. you can go to democracy now.org for a link. after things calmed down a bit, brian spoke to some lwk members. >> white lives matter. everybody on black lives matter and all that -- cork but what about the klan hate. can you see why people would be upset? >> [inaudible] >> do you have a candidate that you like? give a presidential candidate that you like? >> trump. , you'rean levin director of the center for the study of hate and extremism at california state university at san bernardino. explain what was taking place. >> the loyal white knights, which has had significant growth nationally last year, the klan only has maybe 4500 to 5500 members nationwide, far cry from the 4.5 million to five point million inn -- 5 previous years. you really had to get a klan endorsement to get a political position. now they are very small. i think they just have somewhat more than a handful in their chapter. nationally has grown. in california, th

. >> brian levin teaches about extremism at cal state university in san bernardino. >> people are nowmpowered not by information, but by emotion. and that fear is driving prejudicial attitudes to targe target muslim americans here in the united states. >> but he said there is another factor flaming the fear. >> there is social media that capitalizes on identifying muslims as a whole as a threat as opposed to extremists in places where there has been a collapse of civil governance. >> no more. jihadist mosques. >> there is a connection of islamphobes who try to take discrete examples of muslim extremism and extrapolate it to all muslims in the world and say well, any real muslim is going to buy into this because this is what their faith is. >> and fear, inc. the center of american progress identified a small number of muslim activists that are pushing an extreme view of islam and spending tens of thousands of dollars to exaggerate the threat of islamic domination and the qur'an. >> this message, it says, is then pushed out through a fast network of media and grassroots organizations. >

also with us, brian levin, for the study of hate and extremism at california state university. gentlemen, welcome to both of you. shawn, i want to start with you. one of the points that's been made by security officials i have talked to here is, look, these are not a couple of guys getting together. these are not disgruntled people. these are terror networks. they are sophisticated. they have improved the way they put these attacks together. what's your analysis of what you've seen and learned so far about what happened here in brussels? >> yeah, chris. i think that's exactly right. these are people who have been trained internationally. they are foreign fighters and very skilled in the construction of the explosive devices in the use of long guns, heavy weaponry. clearly they have been able to keep themselves off the radar for many months. they have what appears to be a strong network in brussels to allow them to be housed, fed, they can communicate. and clearly to plan these types of divorcevices that have broug serious repercussions around brussels and the european countries

now we'll turn to brian levin, director for the nonpartisan center for hate and extremism at californiatate university, san bernardino. thanks for joining us. i'm just curious, watching the scenes unfold this weekend with the rest of the country, i'm trying to think of a precedent, i'm trying to think of another example, maybe in modern times, of something like we saw over the weekend. i'm kind of drawing a blank. what about you? >> certainly not during the last half insure. look, we've seen people who use language that's been divisive. george wallace, for instance. pat buchanan, but what we haven't seen is a front-runner using it, and with the impromateur of aggressive force in the campaign. and just with respect to the incitement investigation, the supreme court back in the 1960s had a case involving incitement. and what they require in order for criminal charges to be levied is an immediate call to criminality and something that's directed specifically towards it. i don't know if mr. trump has met the legal standard for criminal incitement, but certainly, what he is doing is fueling

. >>> i want to bring in brian levin the director of the center for the study of hate and extremism at cal state university. good morning to you, brian. >> thank you for having me, betty. >> all right, i want to get to something that claudio talked about, the brothers. they were convicted criminals. belgium was warned about him, so how did they slip through the cra cracks? >> with intel it's the analysis of them and then the distribution of it and clearly there was a significant failure once that intel got to belgium. now, of course belgium has the largest proportion per population of foreign fighters and indeed, they're overwhelmed. while they're putting more resources on it, they haven't put enough. >> so is that really the problem? belgium authorities are just overwhelmed by this because we are seeing belgium becoming a breeding ground you will for these extremists. >> you are right. they have had radical clerics like folks who are affiliated with shari'ah for belgium who have been fertile breeding grounds basically farm teams for isis. and the fact of the matter is, even if you are