( CNN ) The Somali jihadi group Al-Shabaab grabbed headlines at the weekend when it released a video urging Muslims living in the United States , Britain and Canada to launch terrorist attacks against high-profile shopping malls -- including the Mall of America in Minnesota . So , why the threat now ? And how worried should we be ? The answer to the first question is easy . Al-Shabaab is trying to get attention . And it succeeded . Al-Shabaab desperately needed such attention for two reasons . For a start , it has been entirely overshadowed by the violent extremist group the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria over the past year . The fact is that ISIS is garnering virtually all of the media coverage of extremists , and as a result is attracting virtually all the recruits and money from the patrons of violent extremism . This has left jihadi groups like al Qaeda , Boko Haram and Al-Shabaab struggling to reclaim some of the spotlight from their new `` rival , '' and a call to attack Western shopping malls was a chance to earn some easy headlines while also trying to burnish international credentials that were badly tarnished in 2012 when it suffered a bloody internal purge that killed off some of its most prominent foreign leaders and disheartened former supporters . But Al-Shabaab also had a potential marketing problem on its hands with the release of a new propaganda video , `` The Westgate Siege : Retributive Justice . '' That 75-minute long video was an uninspired tirade against the Kenyan government that said nothing the group had not claimed many times before . It was far too long and doomed to be ignored . By tacking on a call in the final minute of the film for Muslims in the West to attack shopping malls -- and then naming specific targets -- the producers guaranteed that their otherwise forgettable video would get global headlines . It was a clever marketing move . Does Al-Shabaab have a legitimate grievance against the three countries it singled out ? Of course , these governments all support the Somali Federal Government and the African Union peacekeeping forces in Somalia , both of which are fighting against Al-Shabaab . The United States , moreover , has launched a number of drone and missile attacks against Al-Shabaab , killing their leader Ahmed Godane in 2014 . Some would view this as justification for Al-Shabaab to `` take the war to the West . '' But the reality is that many dozens of countries , from Norway to the United Arab Emirates to China , give robust support to the Somali Federal Government and assist it in the fight against Al-Shabaab . The reason Al-Shabaab singled out these three countries is therefore more venal -- those are the three nations with the highest concentrations of Somali diaspora members . So , how worried should we be if this was mostly a marketing ploy ? Exactly as worried as we were before the video was released . The threat of `` lone wolf '' terrorism -- a single individual who is inspired to commit an act of terrorism in the name of a radical cause -- has long been a major homeland security concern . For years , violent extremist groups such as ISIS , al Qaeda of the Arabian Peninsula and Al-Shabaab have been calling on Muslims living in the West to wage jihad against the unbelievers on their home soil . For example , the former leader of AQAP , a U.S.-born cleric named Anwar al-Awlaki , gained notoriety for a cover article in his English- language `` Inspire '' magazine entitled `` How to Make a Bomb in Your Mom 's Kitchen . '' Likewise , in a 2013 video , Al-Shabaab called on Muslims in the West `` to grab whatever you 've got '' to attack non-Muslims . Despite such calls to action , though , the good news is that very few Muslim citizens in the West have paid any attention to these calls to war . Al-Shabaab 's 2013 video failed to inspire any known acts of violence , and its current video will probably meet the same fate . Moreover , the plea to individual `` holy warriors '' to launch attacks is an implicit admission that Al-Shabaab lacks the network of operatives to conduct a planned terrorist attack itself . The bad news is that lone wolf attacks are difficult or even impossible for law enforcement to track and prevent . In every country in the world , a small percentage of deeply troubled , angry , and impressionable individuals are susceptible to calls to political violence . Denmark just suffered from a fatal act of terrorism by a lone-wolf attacker with no radical Islamist links but who was seized with uncontrolled anger at Danish society . The 2013 Boston Marathon bombings were allegedly planned and executed by two self-radicalized Chechen brothers . We can and should reduce the threat of homegrown terrorism , but we will never be able to stop it entirely . Vigilance , which Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson called for after the Al-Shabaab threat , is entirely appropriate . But vigilance must not be an excuse for overreaction . After all , an overreaction is exactly what the jihadists are hoping to provoke .
Al-Shabaab has released a video calling for attacks on Western shopping malls . Ken Menkhaus : The New York Times reports that the group is planning to attack several major U.S. cities in coming weeks and months.