At a recent Senate Select Committee hearing on global threats, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard said the character of Islamist terrorism has shifted since the peak of ISIS and al-Qaida. Instead of large, complex, centrally coordinated attacks, she noted, authorities are now seeing more lone actors and people radicalized online with limited or no direct contact with foreign groups.
That change in tactics has drawn attention after several violent incidents in the U.S. this month that federal authorities are examining for possible terrorist motives: an attempted attack on anti-Muslim protesters outside the New York City mayor’s residence, a fatal shooting at Old Dominion University, and a violent incident at a Detroit-area synagogue that officials have labeled targeted violence.
Community security leaders and counterterrorism experts say multiple factors are converging to increase risk. Michael Masters, CEO of the Secure Community Network, which tracks threats to North American Jewish communities, says violent exhortations have come from Iran and proxy actors as well as from extremist groups such as ISIS and al-Qaida. “We know that people are working to answer that call and that they are answering it at a quicker pace,” Masters said, arguing that the U.S.-Israeli offensive against Iran has created a narrative opening exploited by foreign extremist entities. He and others also point to a decline in content moderation on major social platforms as a key enabler of faster spread of violent messaging.
William Braniff, director of PERIL at American University and a former Department of Homeland Security prevention official, warned that reduced investment in trust-and-safety efforts combined with the rapid growth of AI tools is amplifying extremist content online. Braniff said the retreat from moderation and prevention staffing has made the internet a more dangerous amplifier where violent narratives can reach and radicalize people quickly.
Synagogue attack in Michigan
Authorities have not publicly confirmed a motive in the West Bloomfield, Michigan, attack, in which a naturalized Lebanese-American, Ayman Mohamad Ghazali, fired a weapon, drove a vehicle into a synagogue and then died by suicide at the scene. Local officials and the Israel Defense Forces said Ghazali had lost family members in Mashghara, Lebanon, after an Israeli airstrike earlier in the month; the IDF identified one brother as a Hezbollah commander. Hezbollah is an Iranian-backed group that the U.S. designates as a terrorist organization.
Masters said the attack reflects a sustained escalation of threats to American Jewish communities since the conflict began, noting an approximately 95 percent increase in violent social-media posts directed at Jews. Eric Fingerhut, CEO of Jewish Federations of North America, emphasized that threats have been rising for years—citing past attacks such as the 2018 Pittsburgh synagogue massacre—and stressed that the source of violence, whether foreign-inspired, homegrown white supremacist, or driven by personal grievance, imposes the same costs on communities. He noted that Jewish organizations now spend roughly $760 million a year on security, money diverted from programming and social services.
ISIS’s decentralized recruitment
Research from the Institute for Strategic Dialogue found seven ISIS-inspired plots or attacks in the U.S. in 2025, a level similar to the previous year and still a small portion of overall domestic violent extremism. Matthew Ivanovich of ISD said those numbers represent a rebound after a lull that followed the collapse of ISIS’s territorial caliphate. He explained that ISIS has reconstituted in parts of Africa and Syria and shifted to a decentralized model that urges adherents to carry out attacks at home rather than travel to a central base.
“It’s much rarer these days to see a direct Islamic State coordinated and planned attack,” Ivanovich said, adding that the group now focuses on self-radicalized individuals. ISD’s data showed that six of the seven 2025 ISIS-inspired incidents involved teenagers—a trend Ivanovich linked to increased ISIS-aligned propaganda on mainstream platforms after reductions in moderation and trust-and-safety investments.
Security, funding, and prevention
In response to the elevated threat environment, some elected and faith leaders are urging Congress to boost the Nonprofit Security Grant Program to as much as $1 billion; the most recent appropriation was roughly $300 million. Administered by FEMA, the grants are available to eligible nonprofits for physical security upgrades and protective measures. Advocates say increased funding is urgently needed to protect vulnerable institutions.
Experts also call for renewed investment in prevention and targeted-violence programs. Braniff said efforts to professionalize prevention work had been gaining ground but were undermined by staffing and resource cuts; he resigned two months into the current administration. He warned that much of the prevention burden has shifted to states and localities rather than being sustained at the national level.
A complex threat picture
Officials and analysts emphasize that today’s threat landscape is complex. Violent acts in the U.S. may be inspired by foreign terrorist organizations, homegrown extremist ideologies like white nationalism, individual grievances, or a mixture of motives. The convergence of overseas conflict narratives, decentralized recruitment models, and looser online moderation has created conditions where violent messaging can reach and radicalize potential attackers more quickly.
Communities and authorities are responding with stepped-up physical security, appeals for federal assistance, and greater focus on prevention and online safety. But leaders say addressing the risk effectively will require both immediate security funding and sustained, long-term investment in programs to detect, disrupt, and counter radicalization pathways.