Revelation 6:3-4 NCV When the Lamb opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, "Come!" Then another horse came out, a red one. Its rider was given power to take away peace (prosperity, rest) from the earth and to make people kill each other (butcher, slaughter, to maim violently, in streets), and he was given a big sword (assassins sword, terrorist, loud, mighty, sore afraid).
More than 50 people have been arrested in the United States for activities linked to the Islamic State this year alone, the highest number of terrorism-related arrests in any year since 2001.
That’s according to a new report released by a research group at George Washington University.
The report, published by the university’s Program on Extremism, says authorities have charged 56 people with ISIS-related crimes in 2015, and 71 have been arrested since March of last year.
It provides an alarming glimpse into the scope of the Islamic State’s influence in America.
The report indicates authorities have investigated ISIS sympathizers in all 50 states, and there were 900 active probes as of this fall. It also says those accused of ISIS-related activities come from many different social and ethnic backgrounds and they had a wide variety of motives.
Some were just inspired by the group’s jihadist message, while a few reached leadership roles.
Much of the data in the report focuses on the 71 people who had been arrested. The report’s co-authors, Lorenzo Vidano and Seamus Hughes, wrote that the accused group was incredibly diverse and that there was no “cookie-cutter profile of the American ISIS supporter” to be found.
The data show the vast majority of the accused were male (86 percent), and they ranged in age from a 15-year-old boy to a 47-year-old former Air Force officer. Their average age was 26. Researchers found almost all of them were either U.S. citizens (58) or permanent residents (six), and the status of the other seven individuals cited in the report could not be determined.
More than half of the accused (51 percent) tried to or successfully traveled abroad, and more than a quarter (27 percent) were allegedly involved in terrorist plots against targets in America.
Their alleged involvement with ISIS ranged from those who had traveled overseas to others who simply posted “support and personal fantasies about joining the group” online, the report says.
The report indicates the arrests “merely the tip of the iceberg, as U.S. authorities estimate that the number of individuals linked to ISIS is much larger.” While the report notes that many of them “will never make the leap from talk to action,” it does caution that some of them could.
The report found the Islamic State’s vast social media reach helped radicalize some Americans, and in one instance helped incite two men to attack a Muhammad Art Exhibit in Texas. But it notes there wasn’t one common theme that inspired the 71 arrested people to align with ISIS.
“These individuals differ widely in race, age, social class, education, and family background,” Vidano and Hughes wrote in the report. “Individuals with such diverse backgrounds are unlikely to be motivated by the same factors.” They also wrote there is no “silver bullet that will blunt ISIS’s allure” to Americans, as the recruit profile is so diverse that there’s no one clear solution.
“American political and civic leaders will need to be bold, experimental, and receptive to novel policies and initiatives in order to defeat ISIS and protect some of our fellow citizens from falling into its clutches,” the report concludes.
