(RNS) — The number of Muslim Americans involved in terrorism cases "rose dramatically" in 2015, although the overall threat they posed to public safety has been exaggerated, says the author of a new terrorism study.
"The demonization of Muslim Americans in some American social and political spheres has created a hostile climate far out of scale with the actual number of Muslim Americans involved in violence," said University of North Carolina sociologist Charles Kurzman, author of the report released Tuesday (Feb. 2).
Republican frontrunner Donald Trump, licking his wounds from a narrow defeat to Ted Cruz in Iowa, picked up the endorsement of former Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown at a New Hampshire rally on Tuesday. The backing marks Trump's first endorsement by a current or former senator. It provides additional evidence that some in the Republican establishment are beginning to warm to a potential candidacy.
