This 2014 report on terrorism cases that involved Muslim-Americans is the sixth annual report on Muslim-American terrorism suspects and perpetrators published by the Triangle Center on Terrorism and Homeland Security.
A total of 25 Muslim-Americans were identified as associated with violent terrorism in 2014, bringing the total since the 9/11 attack to 250; this is less than 20 per year. Most of the cases involved travel (five individuals) or attempted travel (14 individuals) to join designated terrorist organizations in Syria or Yemen (one case). Only 6 of the 25 individuals plotted or engaged in violence in the United States in 2014. This matches the lowest total since 2008. This report notes that 3 of these individuals are included in this report provisionally, since the evidence is currently unclear about whether their plots should be characterized as terrorism. In 2014, four terrorism-related incidents that involved Muslim-Americans killed seven people, bringing the total number of fatalities in the United States from terrorism by Muslim-Americans since 9/11 to 50. U.S. government officials have continued to give high priority to “homegrown” Islamic terrorism as a threat to public safety in the United States. In June 2014, the Department of Homeland Security’s Quadrennial Homeland Security Review noted that “the terrorist threat to the Nation has evolved, but it remains real and may even be harder to detect.” Although small numbers of Muslim-Americans continue to be indicted for terrorism-related offenses, the publicly known cases of domestic plots do not indicate large-scale growth in violent extremism or more sophisticated planning and execution than in recent years. 6 figures