As I read through the latest Europol terror report last week, which showed that arrests and attacks related to jihadist Islamic terrorism rose significantly in Europe last year, while metrics for right-wing terrorism fell across the continent, I couldn’t help but feel that I’ve been fed a steady diet of misinformation over the past couple of years.
As mentioned in a news article I wrote on the topic last week, the report says that of the 426 individuals arrested in 2023 for terrorist offences across 22 member states, 334 were arrested for offences related to jihadist terrorism. It was noted that this accounts for the overall increase in arrests compared to 2022.
This, as we hear unceasingly about the dangers presented by the rise of the far-right across Europe, and here at home. Well, if the far-right’s terror wing was supposed to be rising at the moment, it’s not doing a very good job, because the same report showed that right-wing terror last year was down on previous years, with two attacks (both foiled) and 26 arrests compared with four attacks and 45 arrests in 2022, which was ALSO a fall on 2021 (six attacks and 64 arrests) according to Europol.
Ireland’s trend is also likely to surprise someone who’s been getting their news exclusively from the traditional, mainstream sources, their pages filled with far-right fear-mongering as they have been. A snapshot of the past couple years’ terrorism-related arrests, according to Europol, shows: 18 Jihadist terrorism arrests in 2020 (0 right-wing); four jihadist terrorism arrests in 2021 (one right-wing); four jihadist terrorism arrests in 2022 (four right-wing); and nine jihadist terrorism arrests in 2023 (one right-wing).
Now, it should be noted that not every terrorism arrest relates to someone about to carry out a violent attack; it could be related to someone involved in financing an extremist group, for example. Regardless, when was the last time you heard our news talking about the threat presented to Irish society by jihadist terror? Because going by the numbers gathered by Europol, radical Islamic sentiment is currently more relevant in Ireland than right-wing extremism.
There may be something to that, as the Irish Examiner reported last week “security sources” as saying that the majority of jihadist arrests in Ireland are related to the financing of terrorism, rather than terrorist attacks themselves. That matches with stories we see emerge into the limelight from time to time, such as just two months ago, when we saw Gardaí disrupt an Islamist fundraising drive, seizing €100,000 cash in the process.
Directly violent or not, it’s not a comforting thought that there’s a decent number of people in Ireland who feel strongly enough about Islamic terror that they’re willing to put their money and efforts behind its operation.
Violence reminiscent of radical Islam is there too, though, even if it’s proving strangely difficult for Gardaí to find connections between that faith and the crimes in question. Take Yousef Palani, for example, who, if I recall correctly, went to the mosque to pray after committing his horrendous crimes. Doubly strange, given what we know about the extent of Islamist fundraising in Ireland, is the still-unresolved question of the €350,000 in cash stashed in two suitcases Gardaí found while searching Mr Palani’s home.
That money was seized and remains in garda custody, despite them apparently being satisfied that it’s not linked to terrorism or criminality. Unusual.
Then there was the stabbing of the army chaplain in Galway in August, which gardaí initially probed for a potential terrorist motive. The 16-year-old boy has since been charged with attempted murder in relation to the stabbing of Fr Paul Murphy, the terrorism part simply dropping out of the conversation somewhere along the way.
The Irish Times reported initially that gardaí believed the boy “had been laying in wait to launch an attack on Defence Forces personnel due to grievances over Ireland’s overseas military activities” and that they believe he had become “radicalised to an extent” by his online reading concerning Irish involvement in Mali and the Middle East.
Also very unusual.
In light of all of that, it’s perhaps stranger still that so much time and effort has been poured into warning the public about the dangers presented by an either incredibly inactive or incredibly ineffective far-right. In the cold light of actual statistics, it can only appear to be directed not so much towards relatively non-existent right-wing extremists as towards people who don’t hold socially-sanctioned opinions in Modern Ireland. Mostly on immigration, but on other things too.
In the ‘Developments’ section of the Europol report, concern is voiced about recurring themes that come up in both right-wing and jihadist discourse (the fact that right-wing is used without reference to extremists is interesting in and of itself).
“Right-wing and jihadist discourses share common anti-LGBTQ+ and anti-government positions, as well as a desire to return to an idealised past. These common elements have been exploited by some neo-Nazi and neo-fascist accelerationist ideologues to promote the adoption of violent jihadist tactics and methods, with several instances of right-wing violent extremists sympathising with or praising jihadist ideology.
“The reverse dynamic has been largely absent, with rare instances of jihadists reciprocating admiration. However, the online activity of young jihadi-Salafists appears to indicate a potential further convergence, particularly around right-wing narratives that oppose progressive politics and a fascination with the extreme violence promoted by adherents of accelerationism,” the report reads.
The overbearingly liberal society we live in, both here and on the continent, seems to have decided that the rantings and ravings of disenfranchised right-wingers online (which I know from personal experience to be too frequently unhinged) is on a par with the very real and active radical Islamic element operating here and abroad.
I do hope that this curious lopsidedness isn’t blinding our authorities to obvious dangers, but I won’t hold my breath.