UT professor to Oak Ridge League: Most recent terrorist attacks in U.S. made by right-wing groups

After the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001, Americans worried for years about the increasing number of domestic terrorism attacks by radical Islamists.

However, in the past seven years, most terrorist attacks in the United States, “probably two-thirds to three-fourths, would be categorized by the FBI and by a University of Maryland project as right-wing terrorism,” said Brandon Prins, professor and director of graduate studies in the University of Tennessee's political science department. He was the guest speaker at a recent League of Women Voters of Oak Ridge luncheon.

“In the United States, Islamic terrorism attacks have been eclipsed by white nationalist violence that we see more of today,” he said.

Prins defined right-wing, white nationalist attacks as “violence perpetrated by people who are anti-government in that they’re reacting negatively to liberal policies, LGBTQ rights and excessive government regulation.”

Some of the conclusions Prins cited about domestic terrorism groups came from Profiles of Individual Radicalization in the United States (PIRUS), that was part of the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START), which is a Department of Homeland Security Emeritus Center of Excellence led by the University of Maryland.

According to German Lopez’s Aug. 18, 2017, article on “The Radicalization of White Americans” in the news website Vox, “right-wing terror attacks outnumber Islamist and left-wing attacks combined.”

A Feb. 23 report by the Anti-Defamation League (reported on Feb. 24 in The Oak Ridger) stated that the number of mass killings linked to right-wing extremism and white supremacy was at least three times higher than the total from any one 10-year period since the 1970s. In the 2010s, 21 domestic extremism-related mass killings were reported, with five more in 2021 and 2022.

Most mass shootings committed by 'lone wolves'

Most of these mass shootings are committed by "lone wolves," Prins said, noting that many of these lone gunmen have experienced a drop in their social standing.

He cited examples like Brenton Harrison Tarrant, who confessed to killing 51 people and injuring 40 in attacks in 2019 on two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, and Patrick Wood Crusius, who pleaded guilty to killing 23 and injuring 22 Latinos the same year at a Walmart store in El Paso, Texas. Crusias claimed he was inspired by the Christchurch attacks and the far-right Great Replacement conspiracy theory that holds that Latinos are being brought into the United States to replace white Europeans.

“Most domestic terrorist groups would not accept lone wolves because they would not help extremist groups accomplish their goals,” Prins said, adding that in 2021 the United States experienced 26 attacks by domestic terrorist groups.He gave a definition of domestic terrorism from START’s Global Terrorism Database: “the threatened or actual use of illegal force and violence by individuals or sub-national groups against noncombatants to attain a political, economic, religious or social goal through fear, coercion or intimidation.”

Pathways to extremism explained

In discussing pathways to extremism, Prins said that a person’s radicalization involves a change in behavior that can be caused by a belief that one group is superior to another group and that violence is justified against the people considered inferior. Another cause is a perceived injustice, a belief that a person or his group has been wronged and should seek revenge. Those joining terrorist groups must undergo a “socialization process” that trains them not only to support the group’s worldview, but also to be willing and able to perpetrate violence.

"Once you become committed to the group, you fear leaving the group or being kicked out or being shamed for not doing what the group wants you to do,” Prins added.

A PIRUS study of 1,500 individuals has identified the common life experiences of people that tend to join domestic terrorist groups. The study found that both right-wing and left-wing terrorists had a criminal history and suffered childhood abuse.

"All of them had personal difficulties,” Prins said. “Many of them felt an absence of belonging. Almost all were involved in drugs. Many of them have spent time in prison. And they also had experience with violence in the past.”

In a study of the life histories of violent white supremacists in the United States, more than half reported a family history of mental health problems and their own mental health issues before or during extremist involvement. Some 62% attempted or considered suicide.

Violent white supremacists in the study also admitted engaging in high-risk behaviors. Some 72% reported problems with alcohol and/or illegal drugs, 58% reported truancy and 54% reported academic failure that resulted in their being expelled from or dropping out of school.

"Terrorist attacks happen all over our country,” Prins said.

He noted that right-wing terrorism is also occurring increasingly in European nations, including France, Germany and Great Britain. He remarked that most terrorists are men, but a few women terrorists and suicide bombers have caused fatalities.

At the beginning of his talk, he pointed out that data from 2007 through 2013 showed that the most terrorist attacks were in Iraq (9,445), Pakistan (6,935) and Afghanistan (4,905). In that period, he said, “the U.S. was ranked 30th in reported terrorist attacks, with 87 that were mostly right wing and not jihadi.” But, he added, “a lot of terrorist violence between 2007 and 2013 is the consequence of U.S. invasions in Iraq and Afghanistan.”

Prins said that France and Saudi Arabia have the most effective programs for deradicalizing and rehabilitating former terrorist group members by getting them employment and involving their families in giving them a social structure.

Asked about the effects of right-wing media reports and disinformation campaigns, Prins said, “It’s certainly the case that right-wing media like Fox News have spread stories that inflame anger in individuals that already think the government is acting in some wrong way.”

He mentioned the response by right-wing groups to a National Guard exercise in Texas carried out by the Obama administration. The right-wing media portrayed this exercise as an attempt by the president to establish martial law and start taking over the United States. The governor of Texas gave legitimacy to the conspiracy theory “that spread like wildfire through the right-wing media” by deploying the Texas National Guard to monitor the exercise.

UT is studying disinformation campaigns by the Russian government that attempt “to spur social antagonism and unrest in the United States,” Prins said, noting that in the 1980s, the Soviet government disseminated the fake story that the AIDS virus was created and spread by the U.S. government.

This article originally appeared on Oakridger: UT prof: Most recent U.S. terrorist attacks made by right-wing groups