A Comparative Reflection on Refugees and National Security: What We Should Learn from Europe About Responding to Homegrown Terrorism

Abstract

The threat of terrorism around the world is both credible and substantial. The Global Terrorism Database maintained by the National Commission for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism recorded more than 85,000 inci­dents of terrorism worldwide in the 15-year period from 2001-2015, with more than 200,000 fatalities. This amounts to an average of more than 5,000 incidents per year, including almost 15,000 in 2015 alone.

The media disproportionately focuses on terrorist acts committed in the United States or European Union countries. Terrorism, however, usually occurs in a few countries, none of which are part of the Western world. The same study by the National Commission concluded that 73 percent of all recorded terrorist attacks between 2001 and 2015 occurred in just ten countries: Afghanistan, Algeria, India, Iraq, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines, Somalia, Syria, and Yemen. Moreover, 46 percent of the incidents, accounting for more than 50 percent of the fatalities, took place in just three countries-Afghanistan, Iraq, and Pakistan. Outside of these three countries, in fact, terrorism attacks occur only occasionally.

This comparative elucidation through data of terrorism's effect on a global scale is not provided to undermine the enormous and horrific human toll of terrorism within the United States and Europe. In fact, in the United States, the scale and scope of the September 11th terrorist acts places these among the worst in history. Furthermore, since September 11, the United States has experienced at least 16 more jihadist terrorist attacks. While numerically few, all but one of these resulted in injuries and seven in fatalities. In addition, several hundred individuals have been arrested for providing material support to jihadist groups or attempting to join terrorist fronts abroad, while approximately 150 persons have been arrested for plotting terrorist attacks in the United States. Moreover, Europe has suffered a sharper increase in terrorist activity in recent years than the United States. More than 5,000 volunteers went from Europe to Syria to serve in the ranks of the jihadist groups, mainly the Islamic State, and about a third have retumed.Thousands more are suspected of traveling to Syria to fight alongside the Islamic State or of plotting terrorist attacks at home. Europe 9 has also experienced terrifying acts of terrorism aimed at civilians in public spaces.