The Counter Extremism Project (CEP) released the following statement today on the one-year anniversary of the terror attack in San Bernardino, California:

“On December 2, 2015, Syed Rizwan Farook and his wife Tashfeen Malik killed 14 people during a shooting spree at a holiday party sponsored by Farook’s employer, the San Bernardino County Public Health Department. During the attack, the couple pledged allegiance to ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi via Facebook. Several hours later, the two homegrown violent extremists died in a shootout with law enforcement.

“The subsequent FBI investigation revealed something that has become all too familiar in the aftermath of domestic terror attacks: evidence of the radicalizing impact of the late al-Qaeda cleric Anwar al-Awlaki. Farook and his neighbor, Enrique Marquez Jr., reportedly spent hours listening to Awlaki’s lectures and studying directions for making explosives. Marquez stands accused of purchasing the two rifles used in the killing spree and is scheduled to stand trial in the spring of 2017.

“Awlaki personally directed attackers like Fort Hood shooter Nidal Hasan in 2009, and inspired many others to commit atrocities after his death in 2011, due to the ubiquity of his lectures and sermons online. Orlando nightclub killer Omar Mateen, and most recently, the Ohio State University attacker Abdul Razak Ali Artan, were only the latest to be tragically inspired in part by Awlaki’s hateful and destructive interpretations of Islam.

“Until Internet and social media companies do more to combat the pernicious propaganda of Awlaki, we can unfortunately expect more tragedies like San Bernardino in the future.”

For requests for interviews, please contact CEP at [email protected].