Sara Harmouch, American University

The deadly Jan. 1, 2025, attack in New Orleans serves as a reminder of the persistent threat to the U.S. from individuals inspired by extremist Islamist groups.

While the investigation is still ongoing, some details about the suspect have been released. Authorities say Shamsud-Din Jabbar, a U.S. Army veteran, was behind the assault in which a truck was driven into a dense crowd in New Orleans’ French Quarter a few hours after midnight, killing at least 15 people and injuring dozens more. Jabbar, who died in a shoot-out with police, had pledged loyalty to the Islamic State group in online videos posted on Dec. 31, according to the FBI.

It represents the first major assault on an American city by an individual purportedly influenced by the Islamic State group, or one of its affiliates, since a 2017 truck assault in New York City that killed eight.

The New Orleans attack, like that earlier incident, underscores an important point: While the Islamic State group’s territorial caliphate – the area in Syria and Iraq in which it assumed both political and religious authority and sought to enforce its interpretation of Islamic law – has been dismantled, the group’s ability to inspire acts of terror on U.S. soil through online propaganda and ideological influence remains alarmingly potent.

As a terrorism expert and a scholar specializing in radical Islamist militant groups, I believe the case of Jabbar – an American soldier who was radicalized in the U.S. – echoes similar lone wolf attacks in the West over the past decade.

With lost territory in the Middle East, the Islamic State group has sought to exploit personal grievances, mental health struggles and ideological vulnerabilities, transforming isolated individuals in the West into deadly instruments of violence.

An attack inspired by the Islamic State

The New Year’s Day attack took place in New Orleans’ famous French Quarter. At about 3:15 a.m., Jabbar plowed his truck into a dense crowd along the popular Bourbon Street.

Advertisement

In the immediate aftermath, investigators discovered a black banner in his vehicle – the flag used by many Islamist militant groups, including the Islamic State.

While the Islamic State has not yet officially claimed the attack on any of its social media platforms, subsequent reviews of Jabbar’s online activity revealed videos posted just hours before the incident, in which he pledged allegiance to the group. On Jan. 2, Christopher Raia of the FBI’s counterterrorism division said Jabbar was “100% inspired by ISIS,” using an alternative name for the group.

Jabbar’s background adds complexity to the narrative. A 42-year-old veteran, he had no prior known links to extremist networks, according to the FBI, underscoring the challenge posed by self-radicalized individuals who operate outside the scope of traditional terrorist cells.

At this early stage of the investigation, it appears the attack was planned independently, driven by an ideological alignment with the Islamic State group rather than at the direction of any of its leaders. This highlights the decentralized and unpredictable nature of the current terrorist threat landscape.

The growing threat of lone actor attacks

At the height of its power in 2014-2015, the Islamic State group controlled significant territory across Syria and Iraq, establishing a self-declared caliphate. While this physical caliphate was dismantled by 2019, following sustained efforts by the U.S.-led Global Coalition to Defeat the Islamic State, the group continues to operate, conduct and inspire attacks.

Lone wolf attacks, inspired by Islamic State group propaganda but lacking direct operational support, have become the hallmark of the post-caliphate era.

By inspiring individuals to carry out attacks independently, the Islamic State group aims to create an atmosphere of fear and instability, demonstrating its global influence despite lacking a physical caliphate.

It has actively sought to radicalize and mobilize individuals in the U.S. through digital platforms, spreading violent narratives and offering tactical guidance to potential attackers.

Advertisement

This strategy allows the group to maintain relevance and project strength despite its physical losses in the Middle East.

The New Orleans incident follows a pattern seen in previous attacks in the West — such as the 2016 Nice truck attack in France, the 2016 Berlin Christmas market attack and the 2017 London Bridge attack. In each case, individuals were motivated by the Islamic State group’s call to action, using readily available means – vehicles, knives or firearms – to inflict mass casualties.

This model of terrorism is not only low cost but also difficult for intelligence agencies to intercept, as it often lacks the logistical trail associated with larger, coordinated plots.

Ideological reach and online propaganda

A critical component of the Islamic State group’s continued influence is its sophisticated use of online platforms to spread propaganda.

Even after significant efforts by social media companies to dismantle extremist content, the Islamic State group, al-Qaida and their affiliates have adapted by migrating to encrypted messaging services, dark web forums and niche platforms.

These digital spaces enable extremist groups to distribute radical content, call for violence and foster a sense of global community among supporters.

Jabbar’s apparent radicalization is, I believe, likely to have been driven by such online materials – more will be known when the FBI is through investigating the many phones and laptops agents retrieved after the attack.

Advertisement

Such online propaganda frequently blends religious rhetoric with narratives of personal empowerment and martyrdom. The psychological appeal of Islamic State group propaganda lies in its ability to offer disenfranchised individuals a sense of purpose, framing violence as a form of spiritual fulfillment and resistance against perceived oppression.

The case of Jabbar also raises broader questions about domestic radicalization within the United States.

Individuals like Jabbar – who are not part of any terrorist cell and seemingly have no prior known links to extremism – are often able to operate undetected until they commit acts of violence.

Islamist militant groups’ Western strategy

The Islamic State group’s broader strategy in inspiring lone actor attacks extends beyond mere acts of violence.

By inciting terror in Western nations, the group aims to polarize societies, foster anti-Muslim sentiment and provoke overreactions from governments – conditions that can fuel further radicalization and recruitment.

This cycle of violence and social division serves not just the Islamic State group, but other Islamist militant groups’ long-term objective of destabilizing the West and reinforcing its narrative of a civilizational clash between Islam and the West.

Attacks such as that in New Orleans serve as powerful propaganda tools, demonstrating that the Islamic State group’s ideology remains alive despite its territorial losses. Each successful attack amplifies the perception of the Islamic State group’s resolve, bolstering the morale of supporters and attracting new recruits.

The New Orleans attack is a sobering reminder that the influence of extremist Islamist groups extends far beyond the borders of the Middle East. As the Islamic State group and other radical militant groups evolve and adapt, the threat of lone wolf attacks looms over the U.S. and other nations.

Advertisement

Sara Harmouch, Ph.D. candidate in Public Affairs, American University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

STM Daily News is a vibrant news blog dedicated to sharing the brighter side of human experiences. Emphasizing positive, uplifting stories, the site focuses on delivering inspiring, informative, and well-researched content. With a commitment to accurate, fair, and responsible journalism, STM Daily News aims to foster a community of readers passionate about positive change and engaged in meaningful conversations. Join the movement and explore stories that celebrate the positive impacts shaping our world. https://stmdailynews.com/

(Family Features) The Ardennes Offensive, commonly known as the “Battle of the Bulge,”  stands as the single bloodiest battle fought by the United States during World War II. Waged in the bitter cold of mid-December 1944, it took the Allies a month to secure victory. The cost was staggering: nearly 20,000 Americans were killed in action, close to 50,000 wounded and another 20,000 captured.

In honor of the 80th anniversary of this pivotal battle, the Library of Congress Veterans History Project has launched an online exhibit to commemorate the milestone. While the battle itself is etched in the annals of history, the personal stories from those who endured it remain one of the most powerful testaments to its impact.

The online exhibit, “Serving Our Voices,” features accounts from 12 Battle of the Bulge survivors, part of the thousands of narratives preserved by the project. These stories ensure future generations can gain deeper understanding of veterans’ service and sacrifice.

One such story includes Eliot Annable, a 20-year-old radio operator serving with the Army’s 106th Infantry Division. Just days after arriving at the western front, Annable found himself under German artillery barrages on. Dec. 16, 1944. He recalled the assault in his oral history, describing the intensity as “almost enough to knock you on the floor.”

The following five days became the most harrowing days of Annable’s military service. While on a communications mission, he became stranded behind enemy lines and spent nearly a week evading the enemy in the Ardennes Forest without food, shelter or appropriate winter clothing. After traveling more than 30 miles, he eventually safely rejoined the remnants of his unit.

Back home, Annable’s parents were gripped by uncertainty. On Dec. 31, 1944, his father wrote a letter expressing the family’s anguish and love for their son, regardless of what happened. The moving letter, coupled with Annable’s oral history, provides an intimate view into one soldier’s Battle of the Bulge experience.

Another featured veteran in the exhibit, Guy Martin Stephens, also served with the 106th Infantry Division. Unlike Annable, Stephens was captured by the Germans during battle. In his oral history, he recounted the surreal feeling of combat, the relentless hunger he endured as a prisoner of war and the lingering effects of his time in captivity.

“It’s hard,” Stephens said. “It’s something you can’t ever … your mind is just like a video, or camcorder, I guess. You put it in there. You get busy and get married. You get home, and you get an education, and get a job, and raise your family and everything like that. You can kind of gloss it over or try to push it back, but it’s always there, you know?”

Advertisement

Veterans who served during the 20th or 21st centuries are invited to establish a collection, including interviews (video or audio), letters and original photographs, even if they did not see combat. Families can also submit collections posthumously to honor their loved ones. To explore more veterans’ stories and learn how you can contribute to the program, visit loc.gov/vets.

Photos courtesy of Library of Congress Veterans History Project

SOURCE:
Library of Congress Veterans History Project

STM Daily News is a vibrant news blog dedicated to sharing the brighter side of human experiences. Emphasizing positive, uplifting stories, the site focuses on delivering inspiring, informative, and well-researched content. With a commitment to accurate, fair, and responsible journalism, STM Daily News aims to foster a community of readers passionate about positive change and engaged in meaningful conversations. Join the movement and explore stories that celebrate the positive impacts shaping our world.

https://stmdailynews.com/

Ben Zeller, Lake Forest College

Heaven’s Gate – also known as the “UFO cult” – burst into American consciousness on March 26, 1997 when law enforcement discovered 39 decomposing bodies in a San Diego, California mansion.

Each detail that emerged from the scene stunned a rapt public: Adherents had committed suicide in waves on March 22 and 23, ingesting a lethal mix of barbiturates and alcohol; they lay under purple shrouds, with five-dollar bills and rolls of quarters in their pockets; all wore simple dark uniforms and Nike tennis shoes.

Bizarre as these details may seem, if you actually look at the group’s beliefs and history, Heaven’s Gate has far more in common with American culture than you might expect.

In my book on Heaven’s Gate, I argue that the group drew from broad trends in American culture – religiosity, apocalyptic thinking and an interest in fusing science and religion.

But one theme has become even more evident since I wrote the book. The group’s embrace of conspiratorial thinking reflects a culture of conspiracy that has long existed in the margins of society – and has re-emerged at the center of American life.

Christian, New Age origins

At the time of the suicides, Heaven’s Gate had been in existence for over two decades.

It was founded in 1972 when two Texans, Bonnie Lu Nettles and Marshall Herff Applewhite, bonded over shared interests in alternative spiritual exploration, astrology and biblical prophecy. They came to believe that the Bible foretold an extraterrestrial rapture wherein some individuals would be saved from life on this planet and journey to what they called the “Next Level,” a physical realm in outer space where they would live as an immortal, perfected species of space aliens. They gained their first significant attention and converts in 1975 among alternative spiritual seekers in California and Oregon.

Advertisement

Nettles and Applewhite drew from Christian sources, particularly prophetic and apocalyptic material. They were also inspired by the New Age movement, which emphasized meditation, diet and the channeling of spiritual beings. Like many religious people, members of Heaven’s Gate sought salvation from what they considered a corrupt world.

After Nettles died of cancer in 1985, the group’s adherents increasingly rejected their earlier belief in what they called biological metamorphosis, wherein their human bodies would chemically transform into extraterrestrial forms. Instead, they now envisioned abandoning their human bodies on Earth and transferring their consciousnesses – through (unspecified) technological-spiritual means – into new extraterrestrial “Next Level bodies.” (This is roughly analogous to reincarnation.)

Eventually, some members came to believe that they actually were space aliens – that they’d taken on human forms to learn about life on our planet – though this belief appears to have not been universally shared.

The paranoid style of American religion

It may come as a surprise that, until the suicides, Heaven’s Gate attracted little outside attention.

They didn’t face government persecution, angry ex-members or professional anti-cultists eager to destroy them – all of which dogged other new and alternative religions like the Peoples Temple (the group behind the Jonestown massacre) and the Branch Davidians (the targets of the Waco siege).

So what drove Heaven’s Gate to consider collective suicide?

In the final years of the group’s existence, members came to believe in an elaborate conspiracy that leading governmental, religious and economic figures had colluded with a group of demonic extraterrestrials called “the Luciferians.” According to Heaven’s Gate members, these evil forces were all working in concert to cover up the existence of UFOs, and specifically a UFO “companion” that trailed the Hale-Bopp comet, which came closest to Earth on March 22, the day the suicides began.

Advertisement

The sort of conspiratorial thinking that Heaven’s Gate adopted was nothing new. Their belief in government conspiracies and UFOs could be traced back to popular responses to the first “flying saucer” sightings and the crash of an unknown object in Roswell, New Mexico, in 1947.

Religious studies scholar Joseph Laycock has written about how some aspects of the emerging UFO subculture blended scientific and supernaturalist theories, bringing together religion and conspiratorial thinking. Likewise, historian David G. Robertson has documented how UFO conspiracy theories eventually merged with New Age religious thinking to create what he calls “UFO millennial conspiracism.” Heaven’s Gate was part of those trends.

While Heaven’s Gate emerged from ufological culture, they also engaged in a long and storied pattern of conspiratorial thinking by American religious and political movements, a relationship historian Richard J. Hofstadter explored in his famous 1964 essay on the “paranoid style of American politics.”

In the 19th century, this relationship was especially pronounced in a strand of American Protestantism that envisioned an array of nefarious agents attempting to wrest American culture from the values – and control – of white, English Protestants. They initially targeted (sometimes violently) Catholic immigrants – who were neither Protestant nor English – and justified their actions with a blend of nativism and conspiratorial thinking.

And it was this sort of conspiratorial thinking that suffused American political movements, whether it was McCarthyism or the anti-Masonic movement. Hofstadter wrote that proponents of such ideas often felt “dispossessed,” that the country had been “taken away from their kind.”

Today, many fear that external agents, from Muslims to illegal immigrants, have eroded core American “Judeo-Christian” values. Perhaps as a result, we’re now witnessing rising nativism, anti-Semitism and Islamophobia.

When conspiracy goes mainstream

Heaven’s Gate also embraced what historian Michael Barkun calls a “culture of conspiracy,” which divides the world between evil forces secretly conspiring among one another, true believers aware of the conspiracies and the mindless masses who operate without awareness of the truth.

Advertisement

While Barkun focuses on the religious and cultural margins, today the same elements are arguably at work in American political discourse, whether it’s talk of secret government wiretaps, a deep state, or cover-ups within the scientific community on topics ranging from vaccines to climate change.

The adherents of Heaven’s Gate wouldn’t probably be drawn to these various political conspiracies, though they shared the belief that powerful forces colluded behind the scenes to hide the truth. In order to support their claims of the existence of extraterrestrials and UFO visitations, they embraced this conspiratorial logic.

In the 90s, people laughed off the conspiracy theories that consumed the group and eventual led them to “opt out” of the planet and commit suicide.

But what happens when political leaders embrace a similar logic?

Ben Zeller, Associate Professor of Religion, Lake Forest College

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Advertisement

STM Daily News is a vibrant news blog dedicated to sharing the brighter side of human experiences. Emphasizing positive, uplifting stories, the site focuses on delivering inspiring, informative, and well-researched content. With a commitment to accurate, fair, and responsible journalism, STM Daily News aims to foster a community of readers passionate about positive change and engaged in meaningful conversations. Join the movement and explore stories that celebrate the positive impacts shaping our world.

https://stmdailynews.com/