Homegrown: ISIS in America. Alexander Meleagou-Hitchens, Seamus Hughes, and Bennett Clifford. New York, NY: I.B. Taurus, 2021.

In the book Homegrown: ISIS in America, the authors provide a highly detailed account of ISIS activities in the United States. The book explores an area which has been underexamined in the terrorism/counterterrorism, security, and intelligence literature. Culminating over four years of collected research, the authors use the following sources for data collection: The Program on Extremism at George Washington University, court documents, trial attendance, interviews, and approximately forty Freedom of Information Act requests. The result is a profound analysis of ISIS in the United States and the subsequent creation of theory concerning the group’s activities. This book has six chapters and what follows in this review is a short synopsis of each chapter, with some critiques and suggestions.

ISIS supporters in the United States were typically more interested in traveling to join ISIS in Iraq or Syria than planning ISIS attacks in the United States.

Chapter One and Chapter Two examine primary data. Chapter One provides an overview and synopsis of the data the authors gathered concerning ISIS terrorists in America. The average age of the sample is twenty-eight years of age and over ninety percent of the participants are men. Approximately 154 of the ISIS cases were American citizens while nineteen of the cases were permanent residents in the United States. ISIS supporters in the United States were typically more interested in traveling to join ISIS in Iraq or Syria than planning ISIS attacks in the United States. Chapter Two investigates individual attacks in depth such as the Curtis Culwell Center terrorist attack in 2015. The authors found that ninety-one percent of the ISIS attacks from 2014 to 2019, 21 out of 23 attacks, were conducted by lone wolf terrorists.

Bottom-up counterterrorism approaches have been much more successful in the United States than top-down approaches that have been primarily used in the last ten years according to the authors.

Chapters Three through Five consider the different classifications of ISIS terrorists that the authors created including the travelers, the e-activists, and the ideologues. In Chapter Three, the travelers were caught, most likely attempting to travel to Syria or Iraq to join ISIS. These include sixty-two American residents since 2011. These ISIS members were divided into the following classifications by the authors: pioneers, networked travelers, loners, women travelers, and returning travelers. Chapter Four concentrates on the e-activists or those people who use the Internet, especially social media websites, that assisted and abetted ISIS throughout the world. In Chapter Five, the authors focus on the ideologues who preach, propagandize, and participate in the ISIS terrorist organization such as Anwar al-Awlaki, Ahmad Musa Jibril, Suleiman Anwar Bengharsa, and Abdullah Faisal. Concerning ideologues, their messages to their audiences are timeless and will always be relevant for young, impressionable Muslims in the future. Scholars do not know why this is and why terrorists such as Sayyid Qutb, arguably the founder of modern jihadist terrorism, are still garnering followers several decades after his death. Lastly, in Chapter Six, the authors examine intervention and deradicalization efforts in the United States, which they classify as countering violent extremism (CVE). Bottom-up counterterrorism approaches have been much more successful in the United States than top-down approaches that have been primarily used in the last ten years according to the authors.

Bottom-up approaches seek to destroy terrorism at the ground level by catching terrorists before they attack while top-level approaches destroy funding and neutralize leadership. For the most part, de-radicalization is not successful across the board in most countries and much more research needs to be completed on this topic.[1] The concluding chapter explains why ISIS has not produced many prolific attacks in the United States and makes predictions concerning the future of ISIS in America. ISIS is coming to the United States and terrorist attacks are predicted by the authors.

The American legal system must have counterterrorism tools in place to deal with these people and to neutralize them without trampling on the First Amendment.

Homegrown: ISIS in America is a brilliant contribution to the literature and is well-sourced and documented. Indeed, the book has over fifty pages of notes.  The writing is uncomplicated and is easy to understand for any audience. However, like any good book, there are always a few suggestions for improvement. Considering that all three authors have policy knowledge and some valuable experience, it would have been interesting to see some policy prescriptions or suggestions concerning counterterrorism approaches to jihadist organizations. Do the authors have any insight on counterterrorism or deradicalization approaches that may work with a jihadist group like ISIS? The authors looked at radicalization through social networking, do they have any recommendations on how to stop the e-activists from radicalization and recruitment? Both deradicalization and recruitment are important counterterrorism areas that need more exploration. Recruiters are very hard to find, and an interview with an ISIS recruiter would be invaluable for the literature. From a counterterrorism perspective, if recruiters were neutralized, terrorist attacks would be decreased substantially.  

The authors suggest that ISIS is not gone and that offshoots or inspired devotees will attack America in the future. The authors are likely correct in their warning and it is true that the United States is not as prepared to anticipate these attacks or prevent them as it could be. [2] They argue that ISIS has not been as prolific in the United States as they have been in Europe due to geographical proximity to Iraq and Syria, unique American legal tools, and unestablished social networks like those seen in Europe. However, with time, ISIS or their followers can overcome these problems through technological innovation and learning. COVID has probably played a helpful role in keeping people from traveling and communicating for the time being. The American legal system must have counterterrorism tools in place to deal with these people and to neutralize them without trampling on the First Amendment. The Department of Homeland Security, FBI, and CIA can stop terrorist attacks if they have the proper information ahead of time but identifying possible terrorists and tracking them is still something that the intelligence agencies are working on. In short, the United States has a long way to go.

Christine Sixta Rinehart is a professor of Political Science at the University of South Carolina (Palmetto College) in Columbia, SC.  She has published three books in addition to numerous articles and book chapters: Volatile Social Movements and the Origins of Terrorism: The Radicalization of Change, Drones and Targeted Killing in the Middle East and Africa: An Appraisal of American Counterterrorism Policies, and Sexual Jihad: The Role of Islam in Female Terrorism.

Have an idea for your own article? Follow the logo below, and you too can contribute to The Bridge:

Enjoy what you just read? Please help spread the word to new readers by sharing it on social media.

Header Image: ISIS video screengrab, Zulfi Hoxha of Margate, N.J.

Notes:

[1] Daniel Koehler, Understanding Deradicalization: Methods, Tools and Programs for Countering Violent Extremism (Contemporary Terrorism Studies) (Philadelphia: Routledge, 2017).

[2] Alex Gallo, “Strategic Counterterrorism Failure? Why We Continue Doing the Same Thing and Expecting Different Results,” The Modern War Institute, March 1, 2018, accessed February 18, 2021, https://mwi.usma.edu/strategic-counterterrorism-failure-continue-thing-expecting-different-results/