Press TV - An American scholar says unscrupulous leaders like US President Donald Trump use scare tactics, such as highlighting a Muslim terror threat, to terrorize their population into obedience and for political gain. �

�They want to take away people�s rights, they want to take away people�s money. This is what Donald Trump has done,� said Kevin Barrett, an author and political commentator in Madison, Wisconsin.

Dr. Barrett, a founding member of�the Scientific Panel for the Investigation of 9/11,�made the remarks in an interview with Press TV�on�Friday after Trump blamed a rise in crime in the UK on what he calls �radical Islamic terror,� but presented no evidence to support his claim.

"Just out report: 'United Kingdom crime rises 13% annually amid spread of Radical Islamic terror.' Not good, we must keep America safe!" Trump tweeted.

�Donald Trump is an international embarrassment to all of us here in the United States. Everybody is wondering just what crazy thing he will say next. One of the most recent crazy things he has said is that a rising crime rate in Britain is the fault of �radical Muslim terrorists,�� Dr. Barrett said.

�One hardly knows where to start when talking about a statement this nonsensical, but I guess we could begin by pointing out that unscrupulous leaders typically try to terrorize their population into obedience by bringing up bogeymen, by scare tactics, telling them they have to be afraid of somebody,� he stated.

�May people are afraid of crime, and with some reason. There are parts of the world where one should be afraid of crime. Terrorism likewise does threaten certain parts of the world, but in the West you are vastly more likely to be killed by lightning or drowning in your bathtub then to be killed or even injured by any kind of terrorists. And terrorism ascribed to Muslims constitutes six percent of all terrorism in the United States, according to the FBI, and less than one percent of terrorism in Europe, according to Interpol,� he noted.

'Gladio B false flag terror program'

�So there is no terrorist threat in the West statistically, unless you consider lightning a very dangerous threat. And there is especially no radical Muslim terror threat in the West. The false impression that there is such a threat has been fostered by the Gladio B false flag terror program which has killed the minuscule number of people and perhaps pretended to kill crisis actor in a number of events very carefully orchestrated by Deep State operatives, who have staged events such as 9/11, the Paris attack, Charlie Hebdo, and November 2015. I have written and edited many books on these,� the scholar said.

�So this false image of a Muslim terror threat has been used by authoritarian leaders for political gain,� he observed.

�He wants to steal Americans� money to build ten times as many as nuclear weapons as he has now. And he wants to assume ever greater dictatorial powers. To do that he will likely stage another 9/11 false flag event,� the analyst said.

�Meanwhile, he is spewing his nonsensical propaganda about the supposed danger of radical Islamic terrorists. Obviously Islam and its political dimension have nothing to do with crime rates. Crime is crime and religion is something very, very different," he said.

"And there may be problems with obscurantist versions of various religions, but they have nothing to do with crime rates. In fact the most radical extreme Muslims, Salafi (takfiri) idiots are not normally criminals,� he stated.

�So this is a complete non sequitur coming out of the discombobulated mouth and even more discombobulated brain � assuming he has one � of the supposed president of the United States,� the political commentator concluded.