Jakob Guhl, ISD senior manager of policy and research, wrote an op-ed for Prospect Magazine drawing on his recent research into the Magdeburg Christmas market attacker’s ideology. He argues that despite the attacker’s ex-Muslim identity, his beliefs were consistently rooted in far-right, anti-Muslim ideologies, a pattern found in his online activity over nearly nine years. “While this is an unusual background for a violent extremist attacker, our analysis strongly suggests he was deeply immersed in an ideological online ecosystem promoting far-right and anti-Muslim views. His ideology is neither new, mixed nor confusing.”

Jakob emphasises the importance of properly identifying ideologies: “the mislabelling of poorly understood but internally consistent ideologies as mixed or incoherent—simply because they do not fit the ‘usual’ mould—is a significant risk to security.”

The December 20 attack left six people dead and 299 injured after a car was driven into crowds at a Christmas market in Magdeburg, Germany.

Read the full article on Prospect Magazine’s website.