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[Lime]

Focus on Islamist terror plots overlooks threat from far right – report

The threat from far-right terrorists is being neglected by governments and law enforcement, according to the most extensive survey yet of “lone actors” in Europe.

While Islamist plotters are given full attention, the authors of the 98-page report warn that in comparison, individuals and small groups of rightwing extremists in the mould of Norway’s Anders Breivik are in fact more lethal, almost as numerous, and much harder to detect by security services.

Britain leads any other European country for the sheer number of attacks or plots over the past 15 years that have been planned by individuals or self-starting cells, according to the analysis conducted jointly by four research institutes.

[...]

Analysing 31 European countries, researchers found there had been 124 individuals involved in 98 attacks or plots over a 15-year period.

After the UK’s 38 planned attacks, France came second with 11. Germany and Sweden both had five. The report’s authors concluded that while such attacks have been rare in Europe – 10 countries had no documented attacks in 15 years – there has been an increase in the frequency of attacks after 2011.

[...]

Out of the 124 perpetrators in the database, 38% were religiously inspired and 33% were branded right-wing extremists. The authors of the report said they were surprised by the finding, given the focus on Islamic extremism.

“Given the intense public focus on religiously inspired terrorism, the finding that rightwing extremists account for a similar proportion of perpetrators within the database is particularly significant.”

Melanie Smith, one of the co-authors of the report, said that the researchers were surprised at the high proportion of far-right, lone-actor terrorists recorded across Europe. This perception might also explain the allocation of resources by authorities.

“When we looked into where resources were going, it became clear that actually the vast majority were going to looking for religiously inspired terrorists … which kind of made sense to us because that’s what we were expecting too, but that’s not the case,” she added.

[...]

Rightwing perpetrators – those who were motivated by an “emphasis on immigration policy, a wish to inspire patriotism and to defend their country from what they term ‘Islamisation’” – tended to be older: the majority of them were about 40 years old. They were also more likely to be socially isolated.

Plotters and attackers from the religiously-inspired cohort were far younger – most often less than twenty-five years old – as well as being less socially isolated. They tended to have the lowest indication of mental health issues.

From the 72 successfully launched attacks within the database, religiously inspired attacks caused only 8% of deaths. By contrast, rightwing terror attacks accounted for fewer executed attacks in total but just under half of deaths.

“The most frequent targets were civilians, in particular ethnic and religious minorities, asylum seekers and immigrants. A large majority of religious targets were Muslim,” the report found.

The one outstanding common feature was that 96% of the perpetrators were male.

The challenges of identifying them were apparently deepened by the fact that two-thirds of lone actors had never been active within an extremist group. At the same time, the researchers stated that far-right groups such as Pegida, which has recently launched a British wing, might provide “moral oxygen” for some violent plotters.

Adding that their research suggested a need for increased coordination among EU member states, in particular when it comes to far-right movements operating across national boundaries, the report highlighted that no far-right organisations were currently listed as terror groups.

Rightwing 'lone wolves' kill more than Islamists acting alone

The Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) in London says in its report Countering Lone Actor Terrorism that rightwing extremists across Europe present a substantial threat to the public that should not be overlooked.

It details the cases of 94 people who were killed and 260 who were injured in attacks by far-right terrorists acting on their own between the start of 2000 and the end of 2014.

In contrast, religiously inspired lone attacks killed 16 and injured 65 people.

The report, which is released in updated form on Wednesday, says: “Rightwing extremists represent a substantial aspect of the lone actor threat and must not be overlooked.”

It says that lone wolf extremists have been responsible for 98 plots and 72 attacks in 30 European countries including Norway and Switzerland in the period examined.

[...]

They include the killing of 77 and injuring of 242 people in Norway by Anders Breivik in July 2011 in shooting and bomb attacks fuelled by his rightwing views and belief in the Islamisation of Europe.

The report says the intense focus among the public and in the media on the danger from the Islamist terror threat is at odds with the reality of the threat posed by rightwing lone wolves.

[...]
“The media, and consequently public attention, is largely focused on violent Islamist extremists; while this may reflect the broader threat, it is at odds with that from lone actor terrorism,” the report says.

 

[Slayven]

You want law enforcement to look at White Males?

What is this madness

 

[HStallion]

This is actually one of my worries if Trump makes it all the way to election day and gets destroyed while I'm sure a good amount of the country will be jumping for joy, I do expect there to be an extreme part of the already extreme Trump supporters who are going to react in a very negative manner, even more so than we've already seen and combine that with a lot of guns. Some of these folks seem as thin skin and as easy to anger as Trump and their reaction to him going down in flames is not going to be pretty, down right ugly really. Well its not something I like to dwell on.

 

[Fhtagn]

This has been obvious for a while now. Most of the terrorist events in America are from Sovereign Citizens, white power, or anti-abortion folks.

 

[dave is ok]

Seems like a stretch to add the 'acting alone' qualifier just to disqualify the 89 fatalities at the Bataclan, the 12 at Charlie Hebdo, the 32 in Brussels and probably some others.

It's always been known that politically motivated right wing attacks and school shootings are more likely to be a single white male.

 

[diffusionx]

Radical Islamic terrorists have killed 63 people in the US in 2 attacks since last December.

 

[Lime]

Seems like a stretch to add the 'acting alone' qualifier just to disqualify the 89 fatalities at the Bataclan, the 12 at Charlie Hebdo, the 32 in Brussels and probably some others.

It's always been known that right wing attacks and school shootings are more likely to be a single white male.

The point is that media, public discourse, law enforcement and surveillance agencies tend to overlook or ignore the threat from the far right.

 

[Miles Quaritch]

Seems like a stretch to add the 'acting alone' qualifier just to disqualify the 89 fatalities at the Bataclan, the 12 at Charlie Hebdo, the 32 in Brussels and probably some others.

It's always been known that right wing attacks and school shootings are more likely to be a single white male.

Lone Wolf terrorists are a thing though. A UK politician was murdered by one a few days ago.

 

[teruterubozu]

Funny thing is the right believes the reverse - that liberals hate conservatives more than terrorists. And round and round it goes.

 

[dave is ok]

The point is that media, public discourse, law enforcement and surveillance agencies tend to overlook or ignore the threat from the far right.

Lone Wolf terrorists are a thing though. A UK politician was murdered by one a few days ago.

It's just really hard to stop a lone wolf attack. There are no red flags from them contacting outside support - and warning signs are often missed entirely or not followed up on when they're reported.

Saying 94 people killed by far-right terrorists and 16 by religious terrorists between the start of 2000 and the end of 2014 is silly because 77 of those far right deaths were a single attack and religious terrorists don't usually act alone.

 

[Mr. Giggles]

You want law enforcement to look at White Males?

What is this madness

I lol'ed

 

[Lime]

It's just really hard to stop a lone wolf attack. There are no red flags from them contacting outside support - and warning signs are often missed entirely or not followed up on when they're reported.

Saying 94 people killed by far-right terrorists and 16 by religious terrorists between the start of 2000 and the end of 2014 is silly because 77 of those far right deaths were a single attack and religious terrorists don't usually act alone.

Right, the report points out why far right individuals are hard to track, but it also states that the lack of focus on these individuals in media and public discourse is incongruent with the amount of focus and debate on religiously motivated extremism.

 

[MisterFalcon]

Lone wolf attacks more prevalent coming from a side that does not have significant popular support and does not hold actual territory from where to launch attacks. No shit, Sherlock.

 

[*Splinter]

Funny thing is the right believes the reverse - that liberals hate conservatives more than terrorists. And round and round it goes.

Did you really just dismiss all this research with "and round and round it goes"?


That said, kind of have to agree with Dave is ok. I wish they had included ALL acts of terror rather than just lone actors, as it would make this much harder to dismiss (I'm assuming you would still come to the conclusion that a disproportionate amount of focus is placed on religious extremists)

 

[MistakenMobius]

ABB is clearly the MVP of terror:
Kill 77 people and hurt hundreds. ( Killed 82% or right sing victims and hurt 87%)
Still alive and can complain about food and the video games he is allowed to play.
Even manage to get Norway condemned for human rights...

 

[teruterubozu]

Did you really just dismiss all this research with "and round and round it goes"?

Oh my, did I?