The term ‘lone wolves’ refers to extremist militants who committed terrorist crimes in indirect coordination with terrorist organizations. In other words, such extremist elements commit crimes according to indirect instructions of the terrorist leaders. The work of these extremist elements is usually not organized, which means they are not active members of the organization, and may be inactive cells whose purpose is to commit a crime at a certain point. It is obvious that the recent crimes in several European countries were performed by unorganized elements. It is extremely difficult for the security services to track unorganized elements.
The term ‘lone wolves’ refers to a terrorist crime without specifying its targets. Moreover, the terrorist crime is generally promoted through the Internet so that each sympathetic or inactive cell moves when the right time comes. These inactive cells set goals and without direct organizational guidance. Sometimes lone wolves may be provided with support and directions toward specific goals.
These elements are far more dangerous than organized elements as these can be relatively easy to detect. However, it is very difficult to discover sympathizers with the extremist ideology who could turn in a very short time into terrorist elements capable of committing serious crimes.
Research on sympathizers’ records necessarily means expanding the circle of suspicion over a large number of Muslims in Western countries, except for few groups whose records are known to the authorities. In fact, this is not limited to sympathizer but there is also an alliance between terrorist organizations and traditional criminal gangs. For instance, a new terrorist tactic is the use of criminal elements that are known for the committing and facilitating terrorist offenses.
In parallel to improving security, terrorism tactics have become elaborate, which leads to a kind of a race about time, information and influence between the two sides. Security authorities sometimes excel in pre-emptive operations to detect crimes, but sometimes terrorist organizations commit their crimes despite surveillance.
Despite enhanced security, a single security breach is enough for terror groups to achieve their objectives. As its sources of funding and recruitment are being drying up, ISIS is seeking to merely prove its existence and ability to carry out even small operations, especially that the organization magnifies any operation through its affiliated social media outlets and websites.
Societies, states, researchers, experts and specialists should focus on the ‘transitional phase’ of radicalization i.e. the period of time when an extremist becomes a terrorist. Clearly, extremists turn from sympathizers to potential then actual terrorists. The time between the last two stages may be very short for the security forces to intervene.
The problem is that the security action at the stage of proactive discovery faces many obstacles, especially with regard to the field of freedoms and human rights. It is also difficult to obtain accurate information during this stage, because it is often still a matter of thoughts. In addition, at this stage information is not apparent to the public on the social media or conversations with other people in the community.
Decoding how a peaceful man turns into a terrorist is extremely difficult, but the underlying social and ideological causes are clear. I have already, like many others researchers, discussed this issue in many articles and studies; however, the most important task now is how to develop an early warning mechanism to detect potential terrorists?
Lone wolves step from a sense of hatred against society and sympathy with extremist ideology into actualizing a sudden terrorist crime, actuated by instructions found on the Internet on terrorist crime ‘how-tos’.
The Priority in this task is not necessarily linked to enforcing security, but to efforts of raising awareness and drying up sources of extremism and terrorism. Major religious institutions should openly denounce terrorism and make clear the distinction between terrorism and the Islamic religion.
Anticipating lone wolves is an important and urgent task, but how can this be done? Proposing solutions is easy but the biggest challenge is implementation, especially in light of the complex social reality in many countries. So, the question remains: how can we face this wave of lone wolves?
