Which Poses more Danger: ISIS or Lone Wolf Terrorists?

Liputan6.com, Jakarta - Terrorism has become part of the worldwide culture with every now and then reports about unwanted occurrences involving the use of terror dominating media headline. Many people are aware of the group ISIS, or the extremist contingent known to be Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. It has acquired drastic prominence due to its actions all over the world which most of the time challenge the very power and authority of many states around the world, including the powerful ones.

While it is true that ISIS gains popularity through its confidence in attacking numerous places in order to establish its very own Islamic caliphate, little did many people know that domestic terrorism or homegrown terrorism is just as threatening as those who are part of a larger group.

In the United States, mass shootings in specific locations such as Springs Colorado, Roseburg Oregon, Chattanooga Tennessee, Charleston South Carolina, Isla Vista California, F.T Hood Texas, Washington D.C, Santa Monica, Newtown Connecticut, Brookfield Wisconsin, Minneapolis Minnesota, Oak Creek Wisconsin, Aurora Colorado, Binghamton new York, Salt Lake City, San Francisco, Iowa and many others including the most recent one in San Bernardino California suggest that domestic terrorism is actually conducted as much as the ones performed by an international-wide network terrorism such as Al- Qaeda or ISIS/ISIL.

The Security Data of New America website provides a database that clearly shows a the worrying rate through graph presented depicting the number of homegrown terrorism as being compared to the general terrorism performed by the larger group such as ISIL or ISIL.

According to Infowars, the American Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) made a presentation recently during Georgia business meeting, claiming that ‘homegrown extremists are more dangerous than the Islamic State or ISIS terrorist group’.

It has been presented through exclusive photographs included in the presentation of FBI power point that homegrown terrorist is placed at the top of the agency’s terror watch list.

However, it remains a possibility that homegrown terrorism is motivated by the presence of a larger group such as ISIS. Homegrown terrorism can be rooted down to numerous aspects; anger management, racial discrimination, dissatisfaction or any other motive that may cause someone to be profoundly enraged and confident enough to find closure through violence. The method in which the larger terrorist network exploits gives these individuals the very idea and justification to vent their emotion through violence.

For example, the motives driving the suspects in the San Bernadino mass shootings remain investigated as to whether or not it is associated with ISIS.

Citing from 12News, Co-founder of the Arizona State University Center, Daniel Rothenberg shares about if the ‘shooters were inspired to carry out violence by ISIS propaganda or some other Islamist extremist organization, it’s an example of how difficult to prevent lone wolf terrorists.

"Clearly it’s something our country should be concerned about, and law enforcement is enormously concerned and tries the best it can to track individuals," Rothenberg said.

"In a free society it’s enormously difficult, if not impossible, to prevent all lone wolf or independent actor attacks,” he explained.

Rothenberg further points out that more mass shootings come at the hands of individuals who have no direct affiliation with and to Islamic extremism.

“Society should expand the definition of terrorism to include suspects of other mass killings,” he further explained.

According to Politicsususa, the Department of Homeland Security presents the fact that 75% of domestic terror incidents in America were carried out by lone wolf extremists and therefore the danger they pose is an equal or a greater threat to many of us than ISIS does.

What makes the lone wolfs more of a danger than that of ISIS or Islamic extremist groups is that nobody is aware of their violent plans and the driving forces behind it. It would make it much more difficult for authorities to detect their presence and plans. They do not necessarily have to perform or conduct any agenda of propaganda like ISIS because often what motivates them is exclusively personal.