Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Evangelical
Of Lone-Wolf Terrorists, Jihadis, and Nazis

Of Lone-Wolf Terrorists, Jihadis, and Nazis

Last updated on: January 9, 2025 at 12:52 am by Philip Jenkins

0 Comments

Of Lone-Wolf Terrorists, Jihadis, and Nazis 2025-01-08T20:20:50-04:00 Philip Jenkins

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

After the recent horrors in New Orleans, we have heard a huge amount about lone wolf terrorism and self-radicalization, with many debates about when and whether a seemingly isolated act of extreme violence can properly be categorized as terrorism. I have been publishing and teaching on lone wolf terror at least as long as any other expert in the field – thirty years or so – and I have things to say on the topic that are still not widely recognized, particularly about where the concept came from in the first place. Some of the connections really are startling.

Apart from shorter magazine pieces, I discussed these matters at length in my 2003 book Images of Terror: What We Can and Can’t Know about Terrorism, and in later pieces. One of those in particular still makes me uneasy. In July 2016, I did a column for American Conservative on “Low Tech Terror” which warned of the then very new peril of terrorists using cars or trucks to slaughter innocent civilians. As I wrote, “On such occasions, a determined driver not afraid of being killed could easily claim twenty or more fatalities.” One week after that column appeared, a truck driver in Nice, France, did exactly that, killing over eighty. As I posted at Anxious Bench at that time, I truly, truly, hate being right.

I also know where that lone wolf idea came from, and the source is very surprising. I will here reproduce a column I did at RealClear Religion back in 2013. I will keep the text pretty much as it stood without doing any updating or editing. You will see that I refer to then-recent attacks like the Boston Marathon bombings. Note also that I am talking here about al-Qaeda not Islamic State, as I would have done had I been writing a bit later: IS actually originated as a Qaeda affiliate, al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI). Nor do I reference the recent Jude Law film The Order. But the strictly contemporary relevance of the piece as it stands is obvious, I think.

That original column here follows:

Anwar al-Awlaki’s Nazi Roots

Western governments dread large-scale terror attacks that might repeat the horrors of 9/11, or of subsequent atrocities in London, Madrid, Mumbai and elsewhere.

In theory, though, such assaults should now be fairly easy to prevent. Modern means of surveillance make it extraordinarily difficult for terror groups to keep their operations secret for months or years at a time, to handle complex logistics without drawing attention. In consequence, al Qaeda and related Islamist movements have in recent years shifted their focus to smaller-scale acts carried out by lone individuals or very small cells of two or so people, which are very difficult indeed to detect in advance.

We think of the attacks at Fort Hood, at the Boston Marathon, and the recent beheading of a soldier in London. Yemeni-American Qaeda leader Anwar al-Awlaki (now, happily, deceased) used the Internet to propagate a whole instruction manual for small groups and individual lone wolves seeking to create mayhem while avoiding detection.

When I hear of such assaults, I feel a strange sense of déja vu. Although the present terror wave undoubtedly grows out of the extreme Islamist world, it precisely reproduces theories that originated in very different circumstances, and in fact, in the United States itself. Amazingly, these ideas surfaced not in a Muslim context, but rather grew out of the neo-Nazi White Supremacist Right.

Creative Commons licence

The key figure was American neo-Nazi leader William L. Pierce (1933-2002). Although Pierce spent decades trying to organize the nation’s diffuse menagerie of far Right groups, his most significant contribution was the 1975 novel The Turner Diaries, a terrorist manual for the overthrow of the United States government by a group called the Order. The Diaries supplies elaborate nuts and bolts descriptions: how to combine fuel oil and fertilizer to make a powerful bomb, how to sabotage the port of Houston, the best means of sabotaging a nuclear power plant (mortars firing nuclear contaminants).

The book reads like a manual for terrorist warfare, and some of its readers did indeed try to realize its lethally dark vision. Already in the mid-1980s, the text inspired a vicious campaign by a group based in the Pacific North West that actually took the name of “The Order,” and plotted to bring down the U.S. government by counterfeiting, bombing and assassination. The 1995 Oklahoma City bombing precisely followed the Diaries‘ detailed technical blueprint for the imaginary destruction of FBI Headquarters in Washington, D.C.

The real-life Order’s campaign failed miserably, and for obvious reasons. A terrorist leader may issue an order to plan some attack, but almost certainly, law enforcement will intercept it somewhere along the chain of command. Followers will be arrested and “turned,” persuaded to become informants within the organization. Soon, the group can do nothing without its every move being overheard by the FBI, who can intervene at will. New techniques of surveillance were reinforced by powerful legal weapons aimed against subversive conspiracies. By the late 1980s, the paramilitary far Right was in ruins.

Responding to crisis, extremist theorists evolved a shrewd if desperate strategy of “leaderless resistance,” based on what they called the “Phantom Cell or individual action.” If even the tightest of cell systems could be penetrated by federal agents, why have a hierarchical structure at all? Why have a chain of command? Why not simply move to a non-structure, in which individual groups circulate propaganda, manuals and broad suggestions for activities, which can be taken up or adapted according to need by particular groups or even individuals?

To quote far Right theorist Louis Beam, “Utilizing the leaderless resistance concept, all individuals and groups operate independently of each other, and never report to a central headquarters or single leader for direction or instruction…No-one need issue an order to anyone.” The strategy is almost perfect in that attacks can neither be predicted nor prevented, and that there are no ringleaders who can be prosecuted. The Internet offered the perfect means to disseminate information.

And that brings us back to William Pierce, who followed Turner Diaries with another book that provides a prophetic description of leaderless resistance in action. Hunter, published in 1989, portrays a lone terrorist named Oscar Yeager (German, Jäger) who assassinates mixed-race couples. The book is dedicated to Joseph Paul Franklin, “the Lone Hunter, who saw his duty as a white man, and did what a responsible son of his race must do.” Franklin, for the uninitiated, was a racist assassin who launched a private three year war in the late 1970s, in which he murdered interracial couples and bombed synagogues. The fictional Yeager likewise launches armed attacks against the liberal media, and against groups attempting to foster good relations among different races and creeds.

Central to the book is the notion of revolutionary contagion. Although the hero (for hero he is meant to be) cannot by himself bring down the government or the society that he detests, his “commando raids” serve as a detonator, to inspire other individuals or small groups by his example. “Very few men were capable of operating a pirate broadcasting station or carrying out an aerial bombing raid on the Capitol, but many could shoot down a miscegenating couple on the street.” He aimed at the creation of a never-ending cycle of “lone hunters,” berserkers prepared to sacrifice their lives in order to destroy a society they believe to be wholly evil.

Had Pierce’s blueprint been followed, the result would have been an entirely unprecedented terrorist campaign, combining the devastating effects of traditional clandestine warfare with an immunity to essentially all existing counter-terrorist methods. This new form of terrorism would have differed as much from the classic model as the electronic battlefield of modern warfare does from Gettysburg.

Creative Commons License

Politically, the US ultra-Right was too weak in the 1990s to follow Pierce’s model, and the movement never fully recovered from Oklahoma City. But the Hunter tactics live on, precisely, in the modern Islamist world, and specifically in the influence of Anwar al-Awlaki. Reading texts from al Qaeda’s online magazine Inspire, we so often hear what sound like direct echoes of Pierce.

So close are the parallels in fact that I wonder about a direct link, most likely through al-Awlaki himself, who spent the 1990s in the US. Obviously, he would have had no sympathy for White Supremacist theories, but he might well have encountered related materials almost by accident. We know that in the 1990s, he was being drawn to radical Islamism, and supported armed resistance in Chechnya and elsewhere.

I am speculating here, but I offer a possible interpretation. In the United States, al-Awlaki would have had easy access to the rich array of paramilitary books and manuals circulated by far Right and survivalist mail order firms, which also sold anti-Semitic tracts. Both kinds of writing would have appealed to a budding jihadi. If he dabbled at all in this subculture, he would very soon have encountered the books of Pierce, who was a best-seller in these catalogues. Particularly in the early nineties, Hunter was the hottest name in this literary underworld. If not Hunter itself, al-Awlaki would certainly have heard discussions of leaderless resistance, which was all the rage on the paramilitary Right in those years.

It would be a strange irony if ideas developed to promote White Supremacy were borrowed so successfully by the deadliest enemies of Euro-American civilization. Somewhere, William Pierce’s ghost is not amused.

Previous Post

January 7, 2025

Lessons from Remembering "The Mary We Forgot"

Next Post

January 11, 2025 New Interim Editor of the Anxious Bench

Recent Comments

0 | Leave a Comment

"I love horror but would have to acclimate back to Lovecraft and especially Machen. Have ..."

Terry

Fairies, Witches, Folk Horror, and the ..."

"Very good point about MacDonald.I am certainly a Machen fan!"

philipjenkins

Fairies, Witches, Folk Horror, and the ..."

"The Scottish author George MacDonald integrated fairy world into his fiction in a way that ..."

Terry

Fairies, Witches, Folk Horror, and the ..."

"I like the idea that we can have different streams. The coffee analogy is genius."

Lisa Clark Diller

How Do You Take Your Evangelicalism?

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category abolitionism Abortion Abraham Joshua Heschel Abraham Kuyper Abraham Lincoln Academia Activism Adam Renberg Advent Adventist africa African American Religion Agnes Howard Albert Camus American History American Religious History American Revolution American West Anabaptists Ancient History Andrea Turpin Andrei Tarkovsky Anglicanism Annales Ansley Lillian Quiros anti-Catholicism Antisemitism Anxious Bench apologetics Apparitions Arash Azizi Archaeology archives art Artificial Intelligence Asia Asian Americans Augustine Authors Bad Bunny Baptism Baptists Barack Obama Battle of Hastings Benjamin Franklin Bernard-Henri Levy Beth Allison Barr Beth Moore Bethany Mannon Bible Bill Cunningham Billy Graham Black Music Bob Dylan Body Boenhoffer Books Breastfeeding Bruce Springsteen C.S. Lewis Calvinism Cancel Culture Capitalism Carmelites Catholicism Cedric Robinson Cesar Chavez Charismaticism charity Charles Dickens Charles Lindbergh Che Guevara Chicago Children Chinese Christianity Chris Gehrz Christ Christian death Christian Higher Education Christian life Christian Nation Christian Nationalism Christianity Today Christmas Church life Church Practice cinema Civil Religion Civil Rights Movement Civil War civility Classics Climate Change Cold War Colonial Mexico colonialism Comer Communism community complementarianism Conference on Faith and History Congregationalism Conspiracies Conspiracy Conversion Narratives Coronavirus Costa Rica Council of Nicaea Covid-19 Creation Critical Race Theory Crusades Culture culture wars Daniel K. Williams David Barton David Swartz Death Ways death with dignity DEI democracy Democratic Party Devotion Digital Age Diplomacy discipleship diversity Donald Trump Drama Dua Lipa Early Church early modern Early modern Catholicism Easter Eastern Christianity economic exploitation Education elections Elie Wiesel Elizabeth II Elizabeth Taylor emotions Empire Engineering England enslavement Entertainment Episcopal Church Erica Ramirez eschatology Eurocentrism Evangelicalism Evangelicals Exegesis Family Feminism Film Flannery O'Connor folk music Food Foreign Policy founding fathers Franciscans Franciscus Junius fundamentalism Funerals G.K. Chesterton Gender Genocide genre geography George W. Bush George Washington George Whitefield Global Christianity Global church Grief Guadalupe guest post Guest Post gun control gun violence Gustavo Gutierrez Hamid Dabashi Harold John Ockenga Harvest Hate Hawaiian Christianity Healing health care Heather Cox Richardson Hell Heresy Hermeneutics Higher Education Hinduism Hippocratic oath Historical Fiction Historical Methodology Historical Profession Historical Profession Historical Theology Historical Thinking historiography Holidays Holocaust horror movies Human rights Humanitarian Work humanities Hummingbirds Hungary hymns Imago Dei Immigration Injustice Interviews Iran Islam Islamophobia Israel Ivan's Childhood Jacob Randolph James Bratt Janine Giordano Drake Japanese history Japanese Literature Jean Paul Sartre Jesse Miranda Jesus Jesus Christ Jimmy Carter Joan Baez Joan Didion Joanne Freeman João B. Chaves Joao Chaves Joey Cochran John Calvin John Fea John Tillotson John Turner Johnny Cash Jonathan Edwards Jonathan Tran Joseph Smith Josh Howerton Journalism Jr. Judaism Jürgen Moltmann Just War Justice Justin Brierley Karl Barth Katelyn Beaty koi ponds Kris Kristofferson Kristin Kobes Du Mez Latin American Religious History Latino Americans Lectio Divina Leisure Lent Leonard Cohen liberal arts liberalism Liberation Theology Linda Ronstadt Lisa Clark Diller Literature Lou Reed Lynchings Lynneth Miller Renberg Mainline Protestantism Malcolm Foley Marilyn Monroe Maritime history Mark Noll Marriage Martin Luther Martin Luther King Martyrdom Marxism Mary Masih Alinejad mass shootings material culture medieval Christianity Medieval Ethiopia Melissa Borja memory Mennonites Mental Health Mental Illness Methodism Mexican Americans Mexicans Mike Madrid Miles Mullin Min Jin Lee Miscarriage Missionaries Mister Rogers Mitt Romney modernity Monasticism Mormonism Motherhood Mothers of the Church Moving Music Musicals Nadya Williams Nahua Christianity Native Americans Natsume Sōseki New Contributor New England New Year New York Nico Non-Violent Protest Orthodoxy pacifism Paleo Evangelicals Palestinians Parenting Patti Smith Paul Kingsnorth Pedro Calderón de la Barca Pentecostalism Philip Jenkins Phillis Wheatley physician-assisted suicide pilgrimage Pilgrims pluralism Plutocracy Poetry Politics Pope Francis Pope Leo XIV post-modernism prayer preaching Presbyterians prosperity gospel Protest Public history Publishing Puritans purity culture Quakers race Race Massacres Racial Capitalism racial reconciliation racialization Racism Raha Bahloulipour Re-Enchantment reading Reformation Refugees religion and the university religion and war Religious Freedom Religious Nones Religious Pluralism Religious Symbols religious violence Republican Party Revival Rita Coolidge Ritual Roger Williams Roman Catholic church Royalty Russell Moore same-sex marriage Sarah Irving-Stonebraker Scandinavia Science Science and Technology Scopes trial Scriptural Interpretation secularism Selena Quintanilla seminary Seventh-Day Adventists sexual morality Sexuality Sikhs Silence slaveholders theology Slavery Slavoj Zizek social justice Social Media Southern Baptist Convention Southern Religion Spain Spiritual Autobiography Spiritual but not religious Spiritual Discipline Sports Stanley Hauerwas Suffering Summer Camps Sunday Night Odds and Ends Supernatural Supreme Court Syriac Christianity Tal Howard Taylor Swift Teaching Technology Television Thanksgiving The Beatles The Mission theater TheoBros Theology Thomas Dixon Thomas Jefferson Thomas Kidd Thomas Merton Tim Gloege Tim Walz Tom Holland Tourism tradition Tragedy Translation Transnationalism Travel Trump Ukraine Uncategorized Unitarians United Methodist Church US History Vanessa Chan Velvet Underground Verónica A. Gutiérrez Veronica Gutierrez Vikings Violence Virgin Mary Virtue Virtue ethics Visions Voting War WCTU Wendell Berry Westminster Assembly White Evangelicalism Wildfires Winnie the Pooh Witches women Women in Ministry Women's and Gender Studies Work Worship writing Yasunari Kawabata Zena Hitz

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Which book contains the famous "Shepherd Psalm"?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Proverbs Isaiah Job Psalms