‘Home-Grown’ Jihad

The following sections are included:

• Dedication
• Acknowledgments
• Table of Contents
• Introduction

The following sections are included:

• Origins
• First Attacks in the West
• Al-Qaeda Takes Center Stage
• The West as a Primary Target
• Al-Qaeda as a ‘Brand Name’ and the Growth of HGIT
• Notes

As the threat from HGIT has steadily become more apparent, Western society has struggled to come up with convincing answers for why it is happening. Why would someone born and raised in the West choose to blow themselves up in order to kill complete strangers? What is it that they hope to achieve? Moving beyond simple, kneejerk responses (‘they hate us’/‘they hate freedom’…) it soon becomes clear that there is no simple answer. Rather, there are multiple, interacting factors which combine together in certain situations to create a lethal mix…

Although the US has never experienced a domestic campaign of violence on the scale of Northern Ireland, it is no stranger to terrorism. Since 1970, there have been over 1,200 terrorism-related incidents in America perpetrated by more than 120 different groups and assorted individuals of varying ideological persuasions. Among them have been white racists, black nationalists, left- and right-wing revolutionaries, Puerto Rican separatists, anti-Castro Cubans, antiabortionists, animal rights extremists, environmentalists, Christians, Jews, Muslims, and people fighting for just about every other cause imaginable. Whilst the rate of attacks declined from nearly 70 per year during the 1970s to 14 per year during the 2000s, and while the threat remains diverse, global jihadists have been responsible for 90% of fatalities, most of which were inflicted in the devastating, coordinated attacks of September 11, 2001. Since then they have understandably dominated perceptions about terrorism. However, the roots of jihad in the US run much deeper than this. Before 9/11 there was of course the first World Trade Center attack in 1993, but this too was simply a milestone, a symptom of activities and events that had been gradually building for more than a decade.

For decades the word ‘terrorism’ in the UK immediately brought to mind the Troubles — the long-running conflict in Northern Ireland. The region experienced close to 4,000 recorded attacks from 1970 to 2010, resulting in 2,840 known fatalities. During the same period, Irish terrorist groups were responsible for nearly half of 606 recorded attacks on the UK mainland, the remainder of which are attributed to more than 50 other identifiable groups and unknown perpetrators with diverse ideological agendas. Given such a long-standing and formidable threat, British authorities were understandably preoccupied with the Provisional Irish Republican Army (PIRA) and their contemporaries, and were slow to adjust to the emerging danger posed by Islamist terrorists. It was not that the security services were unaware of the jihadi networks steadily growing in their midst, nor were they oblivious to their connections to militants overseas. But until 2004–2005, no-one truly grasped the extent to which these networks and their violent ideology were becoming ingrained in British communities and turning their venom against Britain itself.

The historical experience of global jihad in the US and UK has clearly been quite different. However, in order to move beyond superficial observation it is necessary to examine the problem in greater detail. Quantitative analysis enables a much more systematic comparison of key variables of interest, which in turn allows us to make empirically informed judgments about the existence and nature of any differences between the two countries, as well any changes that have occurred over time (and at this point the reader is encouraged to review the notes on ‘Analytical Method’ in the Introduction). This chapter begins with an overview of each sample, including a comparison of the rates of Islamist terrorist activity, individual classifications, and the geographic distribution of offenders in both countries. This is followed by an examination of demographic profiles, processes of radicalization, and ideological commitment (see Tables 5.1 and 5.2 for summaries of the data throughout).

Collectively, American and British jihadis have engaged in the entire spectrum of behavior that constitutes terrorism, from simply possessing propaganda and instructional materials to successfully conducting attacks. On the whole, this behavior is still quite poorly understood though, and there are many important questions, yet few satisfactory answers. This chapter presents the findings of an in-depth exploration of jihadi activity in the US and UK, including group characteristics, offense periods, operational activities and roles, sources of funding, international dimensions and associations, the role of the Internet and stated motivations (see Tables 6.1 and 6.2).

Terrorism and counterterrorism are opposite sides of the same coin; it is hard to imagine one without the other. The actors on either side of the equation reaffirm one another's existence and shape each other's behavior in an endless cycle of action and reaction. It is therefore important that we examine not only the terrorists and how they behave, but also the counterterrorism tools that are used against them. In contrast to the former, the latter is still greatly underresearched and gaining access to ‘counterterrorists’ for research purposes can be difficult. Moreover, we are not always privy to the details of how and when exactly formal criminal/counterterrorism investigations are initiated, the techniques that are used or the evidence that is utilized. As a result, the following analysis is therefore very much exploratory and the judgments made are inherently tentative, based on the information that is publicly available. Nevertheless, there is still sufficient information to allow meaningful insights and to illuminate areas in need of further exploration, thereby adding to our understanding of the murky world of counterterrorism as it relates to American and British jihadis. We begin by looking at the investigative process in each country, followed by sources of evidence, legal processing times, and an examination of judicial outcomes, concluding with a discussion of ways in which jihadis in each country have reacted to the measures used against them (see Tables 7.1 and 7.2 below).

Having analyzed the background and behavior of more than 300 American and more than 400 British jihadists, as well as the law enforcement response in each country up to September 2013, let us now consider theoretical and practical implications of results. The chapter begins with a brief summary of findings followed by a discussion of the impact of events in Syria and Iraq, with a particular focus on the issue of ‘foreign fighters’. Next, the general and theoretical implications of this research are considered, as well as country-specific implications for counterterrorism in light of the current situation.

The following sections are included:

• Glossary
• Index