New Orleans Attack Validates ADL’s Warnings About Islamist Extremism
A New Year’s Eve terror attack on Bourbon Street killed 14 and injured over 30, underscoring the ADL’s warnings about rising Islamist extremism in the US
One month ago, America’s leading nonprofit addressing antisemitism released a sobering report warning of the threat of Islamist terrorism. “The dangers of Islamist extremism and terrorism cannot be ignored, even as the country also faces other significant terror threats, such as white supremacist mass shooters,” the Anti-Defamation League’s report read. Tragically, that report had to be updated last week to include an attack in New Orleans by Shamsud-Din Jabbar in which at least 14 people were killed and over 30 were injured.
During the attack, which took place on Bourbon Street on New Year’s Eve, Jabbar drove a rental truck that contained a flag of the Islamic State group (IS) into a crowd of revelers. The ADL described the incident as “the deadliest Islamist terror attack in the United States since the 2016 shooting at Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida, which killed 49 people.”
Darryl Coulon, a senior regional associate for the ADL based in New Orleans, described the accuracy of the ADL’s monitoring work as impressive and chilling.
Darryl Coulon. (Courtesy)
“It falls right in line with the work that ADL’s Center on Extremism has done,” Coulon told The Media Line. “They released an article last month that Islamist terrorism was increasing. Here we are in the wee hours of 2025, and already ADL’s reporting has proven highly accurate.”
Coulon recounted spending the hours after the attack fielding work messages about the incident while worrying about the well-being of his father, a police officer who had been working in the area of the attack.
New Orleans is a city, but it also feels like a very small town. Everyone is interconnected. And it’s a dream of a city, but when a nightmare like this happens, we are shaken.
“New Orleans is a city, but it also feels like a very small town,” he said. “Everyone is interconnected. And it’s a dream of a city, but when a nightmare like this happens, we are shaken.”
The ADL’s report noted that Islamist terror attacks in the US were rare in the years leading up to 2024. But the uptick over the past year was dramatic. The US saw two successful Islamist attacks, as well as five that were thwarted. The ADL said that during the same time frame, there were six incidents connected to far-right extremism and four others linked to far-left extremism or other ideologies.
According to the report, using a car or truck as a weapon is not unusual. “Islamist extremists have attempted a number of vehicular attacks in recent years,” the report read.
The FBI is also monitoring this tactic and has produced a report titled “Terrorist Use of Vehicle Ramming Tactics.” The report explains how attackers can use vehicles to carry out attacks and avoid acquiring weapons or undergoing training.
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In the hours after the attack, pundits and counterterrorism experts spoke about the near-impossibility of preventing car-ramming assaults, which are remarkably lethal and effective, especially when carried out at public events such as parades, holiday markets, and outdoor festivals. For decades, Palestinian terrorists have used vehicles to ram into Israeli civilians at bus stops and other outdoor locations.
One troubling idiosyncrasy of Jabbar’s attack was the presence of unexploded improvised explosive devices filled with a rare “organic material” near the site of the ramming. According to experts, the explosive material had never before been used in the US or Europe.
An additional incident on New Year’s Day involving an exploding Tesla Cybertruck in front of the Trump Hotel in Las Vegas has investigators working overtime to find possible links with the New Orleans terror attack. The second vehicle’s driver, a Green Beret, has been identified as Matthew Livelsberger. Livelsberger fatally shot himself seconds before the Tesla exploded.
We’ve spent these tense, mournful hours investigating, partnering with law enforcement, and working around the clock to figure out how our platform could be misused by the perpetrators of such atrocities.
Like Jabbar, Livelsberger rented the truck used in his attack from Turo, an online car rental company. On the homepage of the rental site, Andre Haddad, CEO of Turo, addressed the matter. “We’ve spent these tense, mournful hours investigating, partnering with law enforcement, and working around the clock to figure out how our platform could be misused by the perpetrators of such atrocities,” he wrote.
Coulon said that one “silver lining” of the Bourbon Street attack was that Jews weren’t specifically targeted.
Islamist terrorist organizations have targeted Jews previously, their messaging is very anti-Jewish, and their ideology overall is that there needs to be a war waged against the Jews.
He called on the American public to be conscious of the antisemitic nature of Islamist ideology. “Islamist terrorist organizations have targeted Jews previously, their messaging is very anti-Jewish, and their ideology overall is that there needs to be a war waged against the Jews,” he said.
The ADL report noted that an Egyptian citizen studying in Virginia had been arrested for allegedly planning a terror attack on the Israeli Consulate in New York City. The student “had praised Osama bin Laden and boasted about spreading Islamist propaganda online, including an ISIS-related video calling for the killing of Jews,” the report read.
Facts are still coming out about who Jabbar is and what inspired the attack. It was initially feared that Jabbar was operating with the help of accomplices or was part of a local terror cell. Explosives found around New Orleans—now known to have been placed by Jabbar—were thought to be evidence of other operatives.
President-elect Trump falsely suggested that Jabbar was in the country illegally, posting on his social media platform Truth Social that he was justified in saying “that the criminals coming in are far worse than the criminals we have in our country.”
What emerged shortly after the attack was that Jabbar was a US citizen, a 42-year-old Army veteran from Texas who had served in Afghanistan. Since his release from active duty in 2015, he has served part-time in the Army Reserve.
Jabbar rented the truck in Houston, where he lived, and drove to New Orleans to carry out the attack. On the way, he filmed and posted videos meant to serve as a manifesto. In these videos, he declared his allegiance to IS and confessed that he had considered murdering his family. (Jabbar, twice divorced, was the father of three children.)
As more details came out, FBI spokespeople began describing Jabbar as “inspired by” IS.
Once again, Americans are confronted by something they don’t want to admit—that the Islamist threat to the world isn’t confined to Europe and the Middle East but is dug into America itself.
“Once again, Americans are confronted by something they don’t want to admit—that the Islamist threat to the world isn’t confined to Europe and the Middle East but is dug into America itself,” conservative commentator Melanie Phillips told The Media Line.
Melanie Phillips. (Courtesy)
Phillips’ forthcoming book, The Builder’s Stone: How Jews and Christians Built the West—and Why Only They Can Save It, argues that Islamist violence is poised to undo Western society.
History teaches us we have to believe people when they tell us who they are for the first time. Americans should be under no delusions about the growing threat of Islamist terror.
Coulon described a similar sense of imminent danger to the US. “History teaches us we have to believe people when they tell us who they are for the first time. Americans should be under no delusions about the growing threat of Islamist terror,” he said.
He said that New Orleans residents would continue to be vigilant in the wake of the attack.
