When most of us think terrorism we think suicide bombers: on many occasions the modus operandi is much simpler.
STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN — We are definitely living in a world where terrorism gets more than its fair share of media coverage. As a former counter terrorism practitioner and now author/public persona on all things violent extremism I really have no complaint with this as it has been and continues to be my ‘schtick’.
But for many others I imagine it has all become too much. Do you remember when terrorism was, at best (at worst?), a footnote in the daily news? Go back thirty years in any well-known national daily (this was of course before the advent of the Internet) and try to find front-page stories on terrorism. I’ll bet that will prove to be a challenge.
Note that I am not criticising the media: they are merely doing what they are supposed to do, i.e. report the news. And of course there is that old adage ‘if it bleeds it leads’. This way of covering events predates terrorism after all.
I wonder, however, what the average Joe or Jill thinks when it comes to terrorism. Does s/he go immediately to 9/11? Suicide bombers? Mass sieges by armed men? Is all terrorism seen as huge in scope?
In actual fact, terrorism takes many forms from the once-in-a-lifetime 9/11 to the ‘everyday’ act that anyone can carry out. In fact, terrorist groups like Islamic State (ISIS) have been encouraging its loopy followers to engage in what I have been calling the ‘Nike’ style of terrorism: ‘Just Do It’. Hence we have seen efforts using knives, golf clubs and…vehicles.
2017 Stockholm truck attack
Today’s example is in this vein. On this day in 2017 a man drove a stolen beer truck into a crowd of people in a popular shopping district in Stockholm and subsequently rammed it into a department store, killing four people and injuring 15 others. Rakhmat Akilov, an Uzbek asylum seeker, ran from the scene still covered in blood and glass only to be arrested hours later in a northern suburb of Stockholm. He was jailed for life for terrorist crimes in June 2018. Akilov had expressed sympathies for ISIS.
His Facebook page – which has since been taken down – was linked to a number of extremists through friends and featured at least two propaganda videos linked to ISIS, one reportedly showing the aftermath of the Boston bombing. He also liked a page called “Friends of Libya and Syria”, which says it aims to expose “terrorism of the imperialistic financial capitals” of the US, British and Arab “dictatorships”.
On this day in 2017 a man drove a stolen beer truck into a crowd of people in a popular shopping district in Stockholm, killing four people.
This form of terror is all too common, as it has been used in many cities around the world. It is particularly frightening to most I would imagine because of its ordinariness. An everyday conveyance – a car, a truck – transformed into a machine of death.
Does this change how we view terrorism? Do we now have to look over our shoulders every time we hear a four-wheeled vehicle approaching? Is every driver a potential terrorist?
No. They are not. Despite the ‘popularity’ of this method it remains exceedingly rare. Best to remember that.
PS Interestingly, Brenton Tarrant, the 2019 mosque shooter in Christchurch, New Zealand, etched the name Ebba Akerlund, an 11-year-old girl killed in the attack, on two of the rifles used in his attack.
