Lone wolves vs white wolves: Terrorism in New Zealand an ongoing show

New Zealand frequently witnesses terrorist attacks carried out by far-right extremists or revenge incidents claimed by lone wolves loyal to ISIS. The last of these attacks happened on Friday, September 3, inside a store in Auckland by a Sri Lankan terrorist.

Police said they shot dead an extremist armed with a knife after he stabbed and wounded at least six people in a shop, noting that he was under surveillance after being accused of belonging to ISIS.

State of alert

New Zealand has been on high alert since a white supremacist gunman killed 51 people at two mosques in Christchurch on March 15, 2019.

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern stated that the perpetrator of Friday’s attack, a citizen of Sri Lanka who had lived in New Zealand for ten years, was killed a minute after carrying out the attack, adding that he was inspired by the ideas of ISIS and was under constant surveillance.

Ardern stated that the attacker had been monitored for about five years, explaining that the authorities knew of the attacker because he was subject to a surveillance order from the court due to legal procedures, but he was not imprisoned because he was not involved in previous terrorist operations.

In response to a question about whether Friday's attack was a kind of retaliation for the attack on the two mosques in 2019, Ardern said, “It is not clear yet.”

Meanwhile, New Zealand media quoted New Zealand Police Commissioner Andrew Coster as saying that they were monitoring the outlet and thought the perpetrator had gone to the store in New Lane to shop, but he picked up a knife from one of the shelves and started running around the place stabbing people.

Rise of individual terrorism

The attack has raised concerns about possible violence against Muslims in New Zealand by what are known as “white wolves,” as evidenced by the attack on the two mosques in 2019.

The European Center for Counterterrorism Studies warned of the danger of terrorist cells in European countries, considering that disrupting them is extremely difficult and complex and requires two major security and intelligence efforts, especially since the influence of ISIS has not faded yet and many European youth are still affected by extremist ideology and then turn into lone wolves who carry out unpredictable terrorist attacks at any time.

Despite the defeat of ISIS on the ground, the danger of the terrorist organization still exists as long as there are doubts about the tendencies and preparations for organizing qualitative and lightning attacks inspired by the organization’s ideology, according to the Center.

A study prepared by the Center pointed out that terrorist operations inspired by ISIS’s ideology are represented in stabbing attacks, and lone wolves remain an important card for the organization to try to prove its existence. Therefore, intelligence efforts should be adopted to track dangerous elements and proactively prevent operations by dismantling the cells before they occur in order to combat extremism and terrorism in society.