The Growing Threat from Within: Far-right extremism in the US

On 27 April, congregants had gathered at the Chabad of Poway, a Jewish Orthodox synagogue and community centre in Poway, California, just before noon, to celebrate the last day of Passover. At approximately 11h30 local time, John Earnest, a 19-year-old male, entered the synagogue and opened fire on the congregants with an AR-15 assault rifle. Earnest killed one woman and injured three others, including the rabbi, before his firearm jammed and he was chased from the scene by an off-duty national guardsman.

Preliminary investigations show Earnest has a history of involvement in far-right activities, including belonging to white supremacist online groups and carrying out petrol bomb attacks on mosques. Prior to the synagogue attack, he released a white supremacist manifesto on the online forum 8chan in which he railed against Jews for planning a “genocide of the European race.” He cited inspiration for the attack from Robert Bowers and Brenton Tarrant, the perpetrators of the Pittsburgh synagogue and Christchurch (New Zealand) mosque mass shootings respectively, which killed 62 people in total.

While President Donald Trump’s administration continues to focus on countering the threat of Islamist-inspired terrorism at home and abroad, this attack demonstrates the need for greater efforts and resources to tackle far-right terrorism in the US.

A GROWING FAR-RIGHT THREAT 

Since the September 2001 attacks, Islamist militancy has been the primary focus of US counter-terrorism agencies. However, the Poway synagogue attack is a further indication that far-right extremists also pose a significant security threat. Their targeting of Muslims, Jews, African Americans and other minority groups is motivated by a variety of ideologies, broadly united in their intolerance of religious and ethnic minorities. Recent statistics indicate that this form of terrorism is on the rise. 

From 2009 to 2018, far-right extremists perpetrated 73 percent of ideologically motivated killings, compared to Islamist extremists, who were responsible for 23 percent, and far-left extremists, responsible for three percent. While far-right attacks resulted in no fatalities from 2002 to 2008, they have become increasingly lethal over the past decade, with 2018 representing the highest number of fatalities- 31 for the year - since the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, according to the Global Terrorism Database. 

Some sources cite even higher figures. In early January 2019, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL)—a Jewish NGO— released a report highlighting that far-right extremists were responsible for killing at least 50 people in 2018. These attacks include a mass shooting at a yoga studio in Tallahassee by an assailant opposed to interracial dating; a school massacre in Florida by a student who expressed hatred for Jews; and the mass shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh by a man who blamed Jews for a migrant caravan travelling from South America to the US.

SUPPORT NETWORKS 

The increase in attacks and attempted attacks in recent years also coincides with a proliferation of support networks for far-right groups in the US. Historically, far-right extremists such as Timothy McVeigh—the Oklahoma City bomber— acted alone, with no broader organisational support and few avenues for far-right sympathisers to share and express their ideas. In fact, the 2016 Royal United Services Institute’s dataset showed that 40 percent of far-right extremists acted alone, compared to 12 percent of Islamist-inspired terrorists. Furthermore, while Islamist extremists often shared their plans with family or friends, far-right extremists were more likely to be discreet. 

In recent years, however, many on the far-right have found the opportunity to engage with ideologically like-minded people through a proliferation of support networks. There are now many far-right organisations (e.g. Vanguard America, Hammerskins) in the US that provide communitybased reinforcement for individuals already vulnerable to radicalisation. While these groups do not organise terror attacks themselves, members of these groups can become emboldened to act after spending time in these organisations.

ONLINE INSPIRATION AND RADICALISATION 

Far-right extremism has also been enabled by the prevalence of online forums and chat rooms, which allow radicalised individuals and those susceptible to extremism to easily communicate with each other. While online platforms have not been used to cooperate and stage joint attacks thus far, perpetrators have used these forums for mutual inspiration and influence. According to an April 2019 New York Times research piece, at least 33 percent of far-right extremists were inspired by people who had perpetrated similar attacks previously, professed reverence for these attackers or showed interest in their tactics. 

Many far-right extremists view Anders Breivik, who killed 77 people in a bombing and shooting attack in Norway in July 2011, as a model. Months after the attack, a prominent US white supremacist named Frazier Miller stated that Breivik “had inspired young Aryan men to action.” In April 2014, Miller opened fire on a Jewish retirement home in Kansas, killing three people. Not only did Breivik’s manifesto express various grievances about Islam and immigration—two key issues for the farright—it also offered a ‘proof of concept’ as to how much an individual actor could accomplish working alone. For Earnest, the likes of not only Breivik but also Bowers and Tarrant serve as textbook prototypes of what a lone actor can do in the name of their extremist ideology.

LACK OF OFFICIAL SCRUTINY 

US officials have been accused of underplaying the threat. Far-right groups have historically received considerably less scrutiny than Islamist-inspired groups or sympathisers. Members of groups such as Atomwaffen Division, a neo-Nazi organisation which encourages attacks targeting the government and ethnic minorities, or the Army of God, an anti-abortion organisation that advocates for violence against pro-choice clinics and doctors, have perpetrated attacks in the US. Yet, authorities typically charge far-right extremists under federal hate crime legislation, which leads to shorter sentences. 

CONCLUSION 

In essence, the radicalisation of Earnest—someone who went from participating in far-right online forums to petrol bombing mosques and ultimately carrying out the synagogue attack—shows the changing character of far-right extremism in the US. Individuals susceptible to radicalisation are not only increasingly joining extremist groups of like-minded people to mutually reinforce their ideology but also violently act on this ideology. For now, there is no indication that the threat will subside in the coming year.