OAN’s Brooke Mallory
1:38 PM – Tuesday, October 31, 2023
FBI Director Christopher Wray issued a warning on Tuesday, voicing that terrorist acts in the Middle East by Hamas and Palestine’s Islamic Jihad could serve as an inspiration for other acts of terrorism, including those carried out by violent Islamic extremists within the United States.
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“We assess that the actions of Hamas and its allies will serve as an inspiration the likes of which we haven’t seen since ISIS launched its so-called caliphate years ago,” Wray said in testimony before the Senate Homeland Security Committee.
Along with senior U.S. officials and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, Wray stated that in the past several weeks, many foreign terrorist groups have advocated for attacks against Americans and the West in general.
“Here in the United States, our most immediate concern is that violent extremists — individuals or small groups — will draw inspiration from the events in the Middle East to carry out attacks against Americans going about their daily lives,” Wray said to senators. “That includes not just homegrown violent extremists inspired by a foreign terrorist organization, but also domestic violent extremists targeting Jewish or Muslim communities.”
According to Wray, last week, the FBI detained a man in Houston who was researching how to make explosives and had posted comments on the internet endorsing the murder of Jews. The FBI director also emphasized that his organization is looking into the violent death of a 6-year-old Muslim child in Illinois earlier this month as a possible hate crime.
He went on to say that there are “multiple, ongoing investigations” by the FBI against individuals in the U.S. who are possibly connected to Hamas.
“Bottom line, we’re going to continue to do everything in our power to protect the American people and support our partners in Israel,” he said. “Protecting Americans from the threat of terrorism is, and remains, our No. 1 priority.”
According to Wray, radicals “across the spectrum,” including both “international terrorist groups and domestic violent extremists,” are reportedly targeting Jewish communities. Wray cited official figures to claim that, while making up only 2.4% of the American population, Jews experience “something like 60% of all religious-based hate crimes and incidents” in the country.
Antisemitism has been on the rise, particularly on college campuses, since the unexpected Hamas attacks transpired in Israel on October 7th. The FBI is also currently looking into threats of violence against Jewish students on the Cornell University campus in Ithaca, New York, that were reportedly motivated by antisemitism.
On Monday, the Biden administration launched new initiatives aimed at combating antisemitism at American institutions and colleges. The proposal that was provided to the press states that in order to detect threats connected to hate speech and to give schools additional resources, the departments of Justice and Homeland Security are now working with campus law enforcement.
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