New Jersey residents are more likely to be attacked by a white supremacist than Al-Qaida.
That is the grim assessment of a comprehensive New Jersey terrorism study released Friday.
The state’s “Terrorism Threat Assessment” report — 42 pages long — noted that officials have raised the threat level from white supremacist extremists to “high” — the top danger tier.
The lone other threat as severe, according to officials, is violent American-born extremists, who also held the “high” designation in 2019.
White supremacists previously had been listed as a moderate threat, along with ISIS and Al Qaeda.
“Some white supremacist extremists argue that participating in mass attacks or creating other forms of chaos will accelerate the imminent and necessary collapse of society in order to build a racially pure nation,” the report warned.
While white extremists were ranked as the greatest threat, ISIS was downgraded to “low.”
Even jihadist terror group Boko Haram ranks lower than white supremacists, the report noted.
The threat level of black separatist extremists rose to “moderate” in the 2020 report after two men adhering to its radical tenets killed four people at a Jersey City kosher supermarket on Dec. 10, 2019.
Last year, there were 2,713 reported instances in New Jersey of hate groups displaying extremist posters, handouts, stickers and fliers — more than double from the previous year, according to the Anti-Defamation League.
“The ever-changing threat landscape in New Jersey and around the country requires us to adjust our strategies to anticipate new threats while remaining ready to combat those already existing,” explained New Jersey Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness director Jared Maples.
