Islamic-Inspired Home-Grown Terrorism (IIHGT): What We Know and What It Means Moving Forward

Since 9/11, Western democracies are increasingly targeted by what has been termed Islamic-inspired Home-grown terrorism (IIHGT). This paper investigates what we really know about this more recent phenomenon and reveals several interesting, potentially troubling, findings. Canadian, American and Australian cases demonstrate that IIHGT actually takes many different forms, depending on endgame, size, organization, and scale and sophistication. It also identifies that despite consistent changes and shifts in form, IIHGT does not follow a clearly identifiable or linear trajectory, making the identification of trends moving forward very difficult. The paper concludes that while IIHGT generally seems to be devolving, this might be portrayed instead as an evolution because the transformation, more likely inadvertent than intentional, will make these types of plots more difficult to identify, monitor and prevent, thus improving the likelihood they will become increasingly successful in the future.