MEASURING AND UNDERSTANDING THE IMPACT OF TERRORISM

TABLE 4 MOTIVATIONS OF LONE WOLF ATTACKS
CATEGORY SUBCATEGORY DEFINITION
Racial and religious
supremacists
Individual issues
Islamic
fundamentalism
Political
Anti-Islamic
Anti-semitism
White supremacist
Individual issues
Al-Qa'ida inspired
ISIL inspired
Jihadism
Anti-American
Anti-government
Nationalists
The target chosen purely because of their association with Islam. This includes attacks on mosques
and retaliation attacks.
Motivated by a prejudice against Jews.
Motivated by a racist worldview and could include identification with views of the Nazi’s
and the KKK.
The attack is due to issues specific to an individual. This may involve a desire to gain attention, a
particular dogma or actions relating to particular delusions stemming from the influence of drugs
or a mental illness.
Influenced by al-Qa’ida and undertook an attack without al-Qa’ida’s involvement to further the
ideology of the group.
Influenced by ISIL and undertook an attack without ISIL’s involvement to further the ideology of
the group.
Inspired by Islamic fundamentalism to engage in violence. The attacker may be inspired by a
particular Islamist group, but is more focused on violent jihadism.
Attack undertaken to express opposition to specific foreign policies or other actions by the United
States and its allies.
Anti-authoritarian motives for their attack including opposition towards the police, tax office, post
office or other instruments of government. Anarchists are included in this category.
The attacker was inspired by nationalism. This includes separatists.
Political extremism
Action undertaken to promote a particular political viewpoint. This may include stances of
immigration, abortion, LGBT rights or any other view. It is extremist by definition due to the
violence involved.
were from the Boston Marathon bombing which killed three and
injured 264 people.
There were six attacks motivated by individual issues. Included
in this category is a bombing in the Czech Republic which was
considered a suicide, the activity of the Italian ‘Unabomber’ and
bombings planted by an individual in the United States in 2014
which were intended to gain the attention of the FBI.
Idiosyncratic lone wolf terrorists may operate for a long time,
such as the Unabomber Ted Kaczynski who operated between
1978 and 1995.
Political motivations for lone wolf terrorism accounted for 110
deaths out of 164 in the West. The biggest cause of death was
political extremism which had a total of 87 deaths. The
majority of these deaths were from the attack in Norway
which killed 77 people. If the Norway attack is removed then
political motivations for terrorism was ten deaths or six per
cent of total deaths. Anti-government motivations were
responsible for 13 deaths and anti-American motivations were
behind eight attacks.
Another motivation for lone wolf terrorism in the West was
racial and religious supremacists. White supremacists killed 12,
anti-semites killed eight, while people motivated by anti-Islamic
attitudes killed one. There were at least 11 anti-Islamic attacks
conducted by lone wolf terrorists, four of which happened in
2013 in the United Kingdom as part of the anti-Muslim backlash
following the murder of soldier Lee Rigby on a London street by
two Islamist extremists.
Islamic fundamentalism as a motivation for terrorism was
responsible for 31 deaths in the West. ISIL inspired attacks was
the motivation behind five attacks and resulted in 11 deaths and
al-Qa’ida inspired 14 incidents and killed seven. Overall, this
accounts for 19 per cent of total deaths from lone wolf terrorism
in the West.
Since 2006 there have been at least 37 incidents of lone wolf
terrorism motivated by political reasons, 27 attacks by racial
and religious supremacists, 25 attacks by Islamic
fundamentalists and eight attacks by people motivated by
individual issues. Over half of politically motivated attacks
occurred in the United States. Attacks motivated by Islamic
fundamentalism spiked in 2010, mainly due to five attacks in
the United States by a Marine Corps reservist inspired by
al-Qa’ida who shot at various military targets throughout
October. Racial and religious supremacists undertook four
attacks targeting Jews in France in 2012 and four anti-Islamic
attacks in 2014 in Germany and the United Kingdom.
GLOBAL TERRORISM INDEX 2015 | Terrorism in Western Countries
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