Sayfullo Saipov, the radicalised Uzbek who mowed down eight people on a New York bike path, apparently developed his plot in relative isolation, like most other jihadist attackers in the US. But in Europe many have had community support. What makes the difference?
Geographical advantage
Experts say that in part, a better rooted, more affluent US Muslim community shows no tolerance for anyone exhibiting sympathy for causes like the Islamic State group or Al-Qaeda.
“We tend not to have large clusters in the US ... For the most part you are talking about ones and twos,” Seamus Hughes, deputy director of the Program on Extremism at George Washington University, was quoted as saying by AFP
Hughes said one fundamental reason is distance: the country is much farther away from jihadist networks and it is much harder to travel to the Middle East because of official no-fly lists
European Muslims find it much easier to travel to areas where radical groups like Islamic State group operate
Tough on terror
Another factor is the tougher law enforcement for terror-related activities in the US. US sentences are 15-20 years, compared to four to seven years in Europe, which releases terror convicts back into the society quickly, adds AFP
Top al Qaeda thinker from US
But terror cells have still operated from the US. Anwar al Awlaki, one of the most influential jihadist thinkers was born and raised in the US before he joined al-Qaeda and was killed in a 2011 drone strike. And in the late 2000s a cell that involved maybe 20 people developed around the Somali community in Minneapolis that became an effective body to recruit people to join IS