In the midst of MSNBC’s rolling coverage Friday afternoon of what appeared to be an act of terrorism in Germany, breaking news anchor Brian Williams and NBC News chief foreign correspondent Richard Engel used the occasion to lament the rise of “a rightward tilt” in Europe of “intolerant” ideologies and parties against Muslims and Middle Eastern refugees.
Engel was astutely noting the prevalence of European nationals who have gone and fought for ISIS before returning home before changing tune to rewind back to the “growing anger” and outpouring of grief for those killed in the Nice, France radical Islamic terror attack from exactly one week ago.
“There were all the flowers and everyone talked about the tragedy, but if you looked at a lot of messages written on those flowers, a lot of them were love and peace. Some of them were not. Some were intolerant. We need to stop this. Enough is enough. We can’t just be cowering in our homes. There was anti-Muslim rhetoric written on some of the memorials,” Engel complained.
As for the German government, Engel ruled that “there’s definitely anger growing...at the German government” and particularly “Angela Merkel who when this wave of migrants came across the border last year, she was perceived to have just flung the doors wide open.”
“This is helping a movement toward law and order parties or right-wing parties across the continent and again, this hasn't been confirmed as terrorism, but generally gunmen with grievances don't travel in packs and disperse through the city and fire that way,” he added.
A few minutes later, Williams complimented Engel for “appropriately been talking [about] the pressure Germany has been under” and thus led to “a rightward tilt, I think it’s fair to say, in an increasing number of European nations and this won't do anything to put that off.”
Fellow guest and writer Ian Bremmer was on the phone as part of the conversation and he honed in on the frustrations Europeans feel about Muslim refugees because of incidents like New Year’s Eve in Germany where at least a thousand women were sexual assaulted by Muslim men:
[T]hen you remember on New Year's Eve, I think there was perhaps was a tipping point in Germany, this was it when you had a thousand German women that were assaulted by young Muslim men, many of whom who were themselves refugees. That was kind of the we had enough moment in Germany and at that point, I think your good guys to bad guys ratio started to tilt. As you know in these countries, you have to maintain support of the general public. You have to have goodwill.
The relevant portions of the transcript from the 2:00 p.m. Eastern hour of MSNBC Live on July 22 can be found below.
MSNBC Live
July 22, 2016
2:39 p.m. Eastern
RICHARD ENGEL: There's going to be growing anger across Europe and there already is growing anger. In the aftermath of the Nice attack, there were all the flowers and everyone talked about the tragedy, but if you looked at a lot of messages written on those flowers, a lot of them were love and peace. Some of them were not. Some were intolerant. We need to stop this. Enough is enough. We can’t just be cowering in our homes. There was anti-Muslim rhetoric written on some of the memorials. There's definitely anger growing and there's anger at the German government. There’s anger at Angela Merkel who when this wave of migrants came across the border last year, she was perceived to have just flung the doors wide open. This is helping a movement toward law and order parties or right-wing parties across the continent and again, this hasn't been confirmed as terrorism, but generally gunmen with grievances don't travel in packs and disperse through the city and fire that way. If it was the case, then we will change the topic, but it certainly doesn’t appear to — it certainly appears to be terrorism at this stage.
(....)
BRIAN WILLIAMS: Richard has appropriately been talking the pressure Germany has been under. A lot of Germans feel they weren't consulted on the huge numbers, the huge wave of immigrants that they have been forced to absorb into German society. We’ve seen a rightward tilt, I think it’s fair to say, in an increasing number of European nations and this won't do anything to put that off.
(....)
IAN BREMMER: Look, I think the Germans have tilted pretty strongly in favor of the good guys over the last few years. They do have effective domestic security. They are monitoring those that are considered to be from problematic countries, certainly those that have been engaged as foreign fighters in Syria and Iraq and Richard has spoken about that. You have also had a community that’s been reasonably welcoming in terms of willingness to provide economic support for the refugees when they come in, treating them as any other German citizen from a social rights and integration perspective, but — but having said that, the fact that Merkel last year said we're going to bring in a million and then you remember on New Year's Eve, I think there was perhaps was a tipping point in Germany, this was it when you had a thousand German women that were assaulted by young Muslim men, many of whom who were themselves refugees. That was kind of the we had enough moment in Germany and at that point, I think your good guys to bad guys ratio started to tilt. As you know in these countries, you have to maintain support of the general public. You have to have good will. You have to have willingness to say we can get past this. This is a bad apple. It's five bad apples, but ultimately, we want to do the right thing. The right thing increasingly in Germany is protect the borders. Fewer people in here. We’ve had enough. It's very much an every nation for yourself kind of theme across Europe right now and even in Germany where they have nowhere near the Muslim population that they do in a coutnry like France or in Belgium, that's what you're now experiencing.
