Threats Of Violence In Russia Extend Past Olympic Sites

As the Winter Olympics approach, concerns continue about the security of athletes and spectators in Sochi , Russia .

Zuhdi Jasser, who heads up the Phoenix-based American-Islamic Forum, says the potential for violence exists in Russia and not just at sites close to the Olympic venues.

“Around the Olympics and transportation towards it, there’s going to be soft targets,” Jasser said. “We saw that with the bombings in the trains just a few weeks ago in Russia , which were 400 miles from Sochi .”

Jasser, author of the book “A Battle for the Soul of Islam,” says you could make an argument that the method in which the Russians deal with radical Islamism has fueled it and created an environment that has caused the problem to explode much more than had they taken what he calls a more rational way of dealing with the radicals.