Islamist Terror Incidents Targeting U.S. Increase in 2024

January 2, 2025, Update: In the month since this article was originally published, at least two more Islamist-related terror incidents have occurred in the United States, including the deadly vehicular attack in New Orleans, Louisiana, on New Year’s Day 2025, which killed 14 people and wounded dozens more.

The New Orleans incident was the deadliest Islamist terror attack in the United States since the 2016 shooting at Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida, which killed 49 people. Islamist extremists have attempted a number of vehicular attacks in recent years (inspired by a deadly attack in France in 2016 using this tactic). Most were prevented before they could be carried out or otherwise failed to cause mass deaths. However, in 2017, Sayfullo Saipov drove a rental truck down a bike path in New York City, killing eight people and injuring 12 more.

• New Orleans, Louisiana, January 1, 2025. Shamsud-Din Jabbar of Houston, Texas, bypassed barriers to drive a rental truck into a crowd of New Year’s celebrators on Bourbon Street in New Orleans, an attack that left 14 people dead and dozens more injured. The suspect had an ISIS flag on his vehicle and reportedly made videos prior to the attack in which he claimed to have joined ISIS. Jabbar was fatally shot by police after exiting the vehicle and opening fire, wounding two officers in the exchange. Shortly afterwards, police found explosive devices in the vicinity of the attack, possibly intended to target first responders. 
• Fairfax, Virginia, December 17, 2024. FBI agents arrested an Egyptian citizen and George Mason University student, Abdullah Ezzeldin Taha Mohamed Hassan, on a charge of demonstrating how to manufacture an explosive with intent to murder internationally protected persons. According to authorities, Hassan had praised Osama bin Laden and boasted about spreading Islamist propaganda online, including an ISIS-related video calling for the killing of Jews. Hassan also allegedly plotted his own mass-casualty attack targeting the Israeli consulate in New York City.

These recent incidents, as well as the other plots and attacks from 2024 detailed below, highlight that Islamist terrorism—whether homegrown or coming from abroad—is still a threat to the United States. The dangers of Islamist extremism and terrorism cannot be ignored, even as the country also faces other significant terror threats, such as white supremacist mass shooters.

Islamist terror incidents targeting the United States increased in 2024 after several years of reduced activity, with federal and state authorities arresting individuals in seven different incidents on charges related to five unsuccessful plots and two actual attacks. Incidents included both homegrown Islamist extremists purportedly inspired to commit a violent act in the United States and people who attempted to enter the U.S. allegedly to commit a terrorist attack.

While Islamist terror incidents were common in the United States—and sometimes quite deadly—in the 2010s, due in large part to the rise of the terrorist organization ISIS (the Islamic State or IS) and its efforts to recruit fighters to its ranks in Syria and Iraq and spread violence in other countries, they decreased considerably by the end of the decade. This was due to successful military action by the U.S. and other countries that greatly degraded ISIS. Between 2021 and 2023, the ADL Center on Extremism (COE) tracked only six Islamist-related terror incidents in the U.S., compared to 30 incidents with far-right perpetrators and five incidents with far-left or other perpetrators within that same timeframe.

During these years, U.S. authorities still regularly made arrests linked to Islamist extremism, but most of these involved people providing material support, such as money, to terrorist groups abroad, or attempting to travel outside the U.S. to join such groups. Such arrests continue today; in November 2024, for example, Anas Said, a Houston man, was indicted for providing material support and resources to ISIS because of his alleged involvement in the creation of numerous ISIS propaganda videos and images. According to authorities, Said also unsuccessfully tried several times to travel abroad to join Islamist terror groups and even considered the possibility of conducting a violent act in the U.S., going so far at one point as to research local military recruiting facilities and Jewish targets, though he did not actually plot an attack.

Other people were also purportedly motivated by Islamist extremism to plot or commit violence in 2024. So far this year, COE has tracked seven different terror incidents seemingly connected to Islamist extremism, compared to only six incidents tied to far-right extremism and four incidents related to far-left or other extremism. These incidents seemingly stemmed from a variety of motivations, from a desire to support ISIS or its offshoots (such as ISIS-K in Pakistan and Afghanistan) to anger over the war in Gaza that began following the October 7, 2023, Hamas terror attacks against Israel. Several of the terror incidents involved relatively unsophisticated perpetrators whose desire to conduct some sort of operation outpaced their resources or ability to carry one out.

However, perpetrators in two incidents were successful in causing serious harm—including a shooting injury and the damaging of an energy facility.

Incidents:

• Chicago, Illinois, October 26, 2024. Authorities arrested a 22-year-old Chicago resident, Sidi Mohammed Abdullahi, on 14 felony counts following a shooting attack against a Jewish man on his way to synagogue services. Abdullahi reportedly shot the victim—who survived the attack—then lingered at the scene for a half-hour to open fire on law enforcement and first responders coming to the scene of the shooting. Police returning fire seriously injured, but did not kill, Abdullahi. Following days of investigation, authorities subsequently added state hate crime and terrorism charges, saying that evidence from the attacker’s phone revealed that the shooting was planned and deliberately targeted Jews.
• Peoria, Arizona, October 18, 2024. Police in Arizona arrested a teenager on state charges of terrorism and conspiracy to commit terrorism, alleging that he had been inspired by ISIS to plot an attack on a Phoenix Pride parade, using a remote-controlled drone with explosives. The juvenile—who was charged as an adult—had allegedly purchased the chemicals needed to make an explosive.
• Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, October 7, 2024. Federal authorities arrested an Afghan national, Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi, on charges of conspiring and attempting to provide material support to a terrorist organization and receiving a firearm to be used to commit a felony or federal crime of terrorism. Tawhedi had allegedly affiliated himself with ISIS-K, the branch of ISIS based in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and sought to commit a mass casualty attack in the U.S. on Election Day. Tawhedi and a juvenile accomplice were arrested while allegedly trying to purchase assault-style weapons and ammo for their attack from undercover FBI agents. French authorities arrested two of Tawhedi’s brothers on similar charges in that country.
• New York, New York, September 6, 2024. As part of a two-country investigation, Canadian authorities arrested a Pakistani citizen, Muhammad Shahzeb Khan, who was trying to cross the border into the U.S., allegedly as part of a planned mass shooting against a Jewish target in Brooklyn, in support of ISIS. According to authorities, Khan boasted that his attack would be the "largest attack on U.S. soil since 9/11." A federal indictment in the Southern District of New York charged Khan with one count of attempting to provide material support and resources to a designated foreign terrorist organization.
• Orlando, Florida, July 11, 2024. Federal authorities arrested Hashem Younis Hashem Hnaihen, a Jordanian living in Orlando, Florida, charging him with destruction of an energy facility and four counts of threatening to use explosives. According to prosecutors, Hnaihen targeted businesses he believed were supportive of Israel. Beginning in June 2024, he allegedly vandalized several Orlando-area businesses and facilities, including a propane gas distribution depot, leaving "warning letters" at the premises that included threats and demands. Hnaihen also allegedly attacked a solar power facility, causing more than $700,000 in damage.
• New York, New York, August 6, 2024. In an international terrorist incident, federal authorities arrested a Pakistani citizen, Asif Merchant, in connection with an alleged plot to conduct political assassinations in the U.S. Merchant allegedly traveled to New York in April 2024 to hire hitmen to carry out the killings but ended up paying a $5,000 advance to undercover law enforcement officers posing as potential assassins. Federal authorities say Merchant had ties to Iran. He was charged with one count of murder for hire, but in September 2024 federal prosecutors filed a new indictment that also charged him with attempting to carry out an act of terrorism.
• Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, April 6, 2024.  Federal authorities arrested Alexander Scott Mercurio on charges of providing material support to a terrorist organization. Mercurio allegedly plotted to attack local churches on behalf of ISIS, in a bid to kill as many people as possible before being killed by law enforcement or dying by suicide. The 18-year-old Mercurio allegedly told law enforcement that he had previously had white supremacist views but later switched to supporting ISIS.

The surge in Islamist extremist terror incidents in 2024 is troubling, especially as the terrorist threat from other forms of extremism, such as accelerationist white supremacists, has not decreased.

Moreover, potential future U.S. policies such as a renewal of the so-called “Muslim ban” as well as mass deportations could provide further ammunition for Islamist extremist propagandists abroad to incite violence within the United States. U.S. authorities must be sure to guard against the threat of terrorism from all potential sources, whatever the cause or ideology.