Far right threatens West with lone wolf operations

Nahla Abdel Moneim

The wave of the far right is escalating in the West, and fears remain about the possibility of the movement adopting dangerous fighting methods or those derived from the takfirist movement, which poses a major threat to the region.

The corona pandemic, with its imposition of isolation, created opportunities for exchanging experiences between extremists. On May 28, the Guardian drew attention to information about the increasing rates of the far right’s tendency towards the lone wolf strategy adopted by the takfirists.

Far right develops its attacks

The past few years have witnessed a growth in the development of far-right methods in Europe and the United States. In November 2022, a person named Andrew Leak attacked the Dover Migrant Center with three firebombs, causing injuries among the workers and those present in the center at the time.

Leak himself was killed in the immediate aftermath of the incident, which in itself represents a qualitative change in the style of the far-right attacks in Europe, and the movement is inviting its members to watch video clips of ISIS and al-Qaeda that contain methods of teaching bombs and explosives, as well as the sporadic attacks of individuals who sympathize with the methodology of the movement without official communication with the leaders in what are known as the lone wolf operations.

Among the major security challenges in this file is the involvement of some workers in the security, military and intelligence services in belonging to this trend and forming hotbeds within the workplaces to implement its agenda, which appeared in Germany.

The German Ministry of the Interior announced in June 2022 the presence of 327 employees belonging to the far right within the police and armed forces, which affects the course of justice and the seriousness of applying laws. In February 2022, the German authorities re-arrested 34-year-old army officer Franco A. after a personal search of him at a train station, and he was found in possession of materials that could potentially be used for extremism. That officer is also subject to another case related to impersonating a Syrian refugee in order to distort the image of refugees by carrying out a terrorist attack and then attributing it to someone of Syrian identity.

Lone wolf operations pose wide security risks, as it is difficult to monitor their implementation and track relationships between individuals, because sympathizers carry out attacks without specific communication, the most prominent being ideological compatibility, and therefore the increase of these operations puts the security and intelligence services to a test.

Far right on the rise in the US

The far-right movement is developing its tools in the United States, which witnessed the most important and dangerous attack of the movement when far-right supporters stormed Capitol Hill on January 6, 2021, leaving about four dead and dozens injured, in protest of the outcome of the US presidential election, which was won by Joe Biden against Donald Trump.

This incident doubled the US administration’s awareness of the dangers of the far right and the extent of its real presence on the ground, which prompted the development of modern methods to extract information about the movement. On May 11, 2021, the US Justice Department announced the establishment of a new department in its intelligence agency to combat internal terrorism and track the activities of far-right elements for fear of its spread in society.

For his part, Saeed Sadek, professor of political sociology at the American University in Cairo, believes that the crisis of free circulation of arms in society doubles the dangers of the far right and the dangers of any terrorist current in society, indicating in a statement to the Reference that Washington needs to reformulate arms laws to confront terrorism.