Adam Yahiye Gadahn

Adam Yahiye Gadahn was born Adam Pearlman in Oregon in 1978; his father changed their last name to Gadahn after converting to Christianity. Adam later converted to Islam and quickly radicalized— he was arrested in 1997 for assaulting his former Imam for wearing Western clothing. Gadahn then moved to Pakistan and eventually became an advisor, translator and video producer to Osama bin Laden. In video appearances, he threatened to attack the U.S. and sometimes went by the name "Azzam the American." He was killed by a U.S. drone strike in Pakistan in 2015.

This database provides an overview of many of the terms and individuals used by or associated with movements and groups that subscribe to and/or promote extremist or hateful ideologies.

Yahya Sinwar

Yahya Sinwar, widely known as the architect of the October 7, 2023, massacre in Israel, was a key Hamas leader who served as the Gaza Political Bureau chief from 2017 until July 2024 and organization-wide Political Bureau... Read more

People Islamist

Hate Group

An organization whose goals and activities are primarily or substantially based on a shared antipathy towards people of one or more other different races, religions, ethnicities/nationalities/national origins, genders, and/or sexual identities. The mere presence of bigoted members... Read more

Key Concepts / Definitions White supremacist

Colleyville Synagogu…

On January 15, 2022, a gunman entered Congregation Beth Israel in Colleyville, Texas, during services, taking three congregants and a rabbi as hostages. The standoff ended more than ten hours later with all hostages released, unharmed, and... Read more

Incidents / Events Islamist

Aafia Siddiqui

Siddiqui is a Pakistani woman who studied neuroscience at Brandeis and MIT in the 1990s and returned to Pakistan in 2003. She allegedly worked as a courier and financier for Al Qaeda. She was taken into custody... Read more