Homegrown terrorism will be the focus of the Conservative Forum for Hawaii August meeting at 2 p.m. Sunday in the Naniloa Volcanoes Resort Palm Room on Banyan Drive in Hilo.

Thom Curtis, chairman of the University of Hawaii at Hilo Sociology Department, will address the group. The public is invited.

Over the past eight years, Curtis has focused his research agenda on the growing threat of homegrown terrorism.

"Whereas the Sept. 11, 2001 hijackers and most other perpetrators of terrorism attacks in Europe and the United States were strangers, many attacks in the West since 2004 have been conducted by permanent residents or citizens of the country they attacked," said forum President Walter Moe.

While earlier Islamist terrorists had received support from minority factions within the burgeoning Muslim populations in both the U.S. and Europe, those directly involved in attacks were almost always foreign nationals.

Several incidents over the past few months including the shootings at Fort Hood in Texas and the car bomb planted in Times Square have demonstrated the significance of this new threat.

"Dr. Curtis has tracked over 150 United States citizens who have been indicted or convicted of radical Islamist activities," said Moe. "He will discuss his findings regarding the motivations and criminal pathways of these 'homegrown terrorists' as well as the steps that security and intelligence agencies are taking to protect us from this homegrown threat.

"Dr. Curtis will also discuss his research into the potential for the sovereignty movement to present a homegrown threat in Hawaii," he said.

The Conservative Forum is a nonpartisan organization which meets monthly. Visit http://www.conforhawaii.com or contact Moe at 966-5420 for more information.

Curtis's research and much of his teaching has focused on psychological and sociological impacts of disasters and terrorism. He recently spent two summers in Europe collecting data on radicalization of Muslim communities and has traveled to Israel four times since 2006 to conduct terrorism-related research. Additionally, he is lead investigator on two projects regarding homegrown terrorism.

The first is the development of a database of U.S. citizens who have conducted radical Islamist terrorism activities. The second is on the potential of the Native Hawaiian Sovereignty movement evolving toward a more violent approach for accomplishing its goals.

Curtis has published dozens of articles detailing his research on disasters and terrorism. He has been invited to present his findings at numerous conferences in the United States, Europe and Israel including the International Institute for Counter Terrorism, the American Psychological Association, the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy, the American Counseling Association, the International Academy of Linguistics, Behavioral and Social Sciences, the University of South Dakota Disaster Mental Health Institute, the International Social Sciences Research Conference