The discourse around extremism is based on hand waving at best and Islamophobia at worst
What is an extremist? It’s hard to find an answer that we all agree on. The only thing we can all agree on is that extremists are bad. Whatever you believe, regardless of political ideology or religious belief, everyone thinks that being extreme is a bad thing.
In Britain, the issue has come to a head recently as the government, flayling around to find someone to demonise as it becomes increasingly unpopular, has unveiled a new definition of extremism. Ostensibly this is to tackle rising levels of hatred and the growing threat of violence, but more likely it's to make it legal to lock up Palestinian solidarity protesters and climate activists.
The new definition
The new definition is long and complex. It will be used for legal and policy making purposes, mainly to prevent extremists getting access to state funds. It won’t be used in political arguments or general discussion, but its unveiling has led to more discourse around the problems of extremism and accusations that some people tolerate extremism.
The question I want to ask is: who is an extremist? Everyone knows who they think are extremists, the people whose views are too different to their own; however, no one can put forward an accepted definition of what an extremist is. If some communities or ideologies tolerate extremism, then we need to know what an extremist is to deal with the problem. As we all agree extremism is a bad thing.
Focus on Islamic extremism
Let’s be honest, the recent discourse around extremism is mainly focused on Islamic extremism, the favourite bogeyman of Western governments wanting to make a power grab at the expense of our civil rights. This time there’s a side order of rage aimed at Just Stop Oil and the like, who do annoying things like closing bridges and reminding us that we’re hurtling towards a climate catastrophe.
Let’s return to the question I want to answer: what is an extremist, Islamic or otherwise? What makes someone extreme, compared to passionate or devout? Recently, Tim Stanley wrote in The Daily Telegraph that Baroness Warsi asked him to define what an Islamist was. His response was “I know perfectly well what it is.”
Not good enough
This doesn’t fill me with confidence. We need a better definition. Even extremists think extremism is bad, as no one thinks they are an extremist. They might think that people they agree with are unfairly considered to be extremists, such as those on the left who are accused of being Communists for saying we should have a wealth tax to fund more healthcare provision (especially in America), but we all agree that the real extremists are too extreme to be allowed a voice in public debates.
If we all agree that extremists are so bad they must be ostracised, then we need to know exactly what an extremist is and which views are not allowed. Stanley’s internal compass, or anyone else’s, isn’t good enough. The definition also needs be fair, and not deliberately constructed to clamp down on one religion or political belief’s activities as that would be prejudiced.
Different religions and football teams
An Islamic extremist can’t be someone whose views become completely fine (or silly) if you substitute “Islamic” for “Christian” (or “Arsenal fan”).
Take this for example: “An Islamic extremist is someone who thinks that society would be better if everyone in Britain was a practising Muslim.” On paper that sounds like a workable definition of Islamic extremism. Certainly, someone who wants to make everyone think like they do is opposed to freedom of thought, tolerance and diversity.
Okay then, what about this: “A Christian extremist is someone who thinks that society would be better off if everyone in Britain was a practising Christian.” This definition would cover several writers at national broadsheets or political magazines, thus meaning Christian extremists have a powerful position in the media. This must mean that wanting everyone to be a practising Christian is fine, as the one thing we all agree on about extremists is that they are bad and should be purged from public life.
Finding a definition that works
Therefore, the definition of “A [blank] extremist is someone who thinks that society would be better off if everyone in Britain was a practising [blank]” cannot stand. It also doesn’t stand up to being made fun of. Consider: “An Arsenal extremist is someone who thinks that society would be better off if everyone in Britain was an Arsenal fan.” This is clearly silly, but someone with this view wouldn’t be chased out of public life.
The problem might be that the definition of “A [blank] extremist is someone who thinks that society would be better off if everyone in Britain was a [blank]”. It’s too restrictive. However, I can’t think of any definition of Islamic extremism that doesn’t become fine if you substitute “Islamic” for “Christian” or silly if you substitute “Islamic” for “Arsenal fan.”
A problem in itself
The definition can be made to work if we add violence into the mix. However, the way we talk about extremism makes it sound like a problem in itself, not a symptom of a different problem (i.e. people being violent). For example when Prime Minister David Cameron said that he wanted to crack down on non-violent extremism, which made it sound like extremism is the problem, whether violent or not, and the violence flows from extremism, not the other way around.
If an Arsenal fan killed a Spurs fan over their team allegiance, we would say that is extreme and thus bad. If this did happen, we would blame said Arsenal fan’s mental health or something similar. The same if a Christian shot someone because of their religious beliefs.
Extremism is not talked about as if it is the product of bad mental health or people who are violent looking for an outlet. Non-violent extremists are still bad. If extremism was a problem caused by something else, then we wouldn’t need to tackle extremism; or come up with a new definition of it. We would just need to tackle whatever the root cause was. It would also mean that we wouldn’t need to understand the different flavours of extremism as that would be irrelevant if the problem is bad mental health or a predilection towards violence.
Don’t be Islamophobic
So, extremism is a problem in itself, but we don’t know what makes someone an Islamic extremist and not a Christian extremist. Islamic extremism cannot be defined as different and worse than extremism of another religion, as that is Islamophobia or anti-Muslim hate; saying that Islam is more dangerous or violent than other religions.
Look back at the statement above or read this: “A Buddhist extremist is someone who thinks that society would be better off if everyone in Britain was a practising Buddhist.” This sounds like someone who has strong opinions on how we achieve inner peace, not a dangerous person who should be purged from public life. If the sentence becomes scary when you take out Buddhist and put in Muslim, then you’re being Islamophobic.
A cover for Islamophobia
Of course, most people with their knickers in a twist don’t want (or feel that they need) a watertight definition of Islamic extremism because “they know it when they see it” or “they know what they mean.” This is the sort of vague obfuscation that allows people to mask bigotry directed at Islam.
What people like Stanley mean when they say they know what an Islamic extremist is elaborated in more detail in his Telegraph article above, where he writes: ‘“Were I to call Jesus a fraud,” I said, “I’d get a few angry letters. If I said something analogous about Islam, I’d get threats of violence.”’
Most of these people who “know an Islamist when they see one” are like Stanley and his religious leaders' fraud comments. Their defence is that they are “criticising Islam” as if they are Martin Luther writing his 95 Theses. What many of them want is the freedom to say anything they like to brown people and not face any consequences.
Fear largely in their heads
I want to be clear about one thing: people shouldn’t get death threats for their opinions and I strongly condemn events such as the attacks on Charlie Hebdo in France. That said, the climate of fear that most “critics of Islam'' like Stanley feel that they live under is largely in their head.
I don’t believe any right-wing commentator has been beaten up, or anything like that, for expressing their views that there is something wrong with Islam and it's worse than the other religions. The reason why I know this hasn’t happened is because if it had then we would never hear the end of it. They might have been called rude names on Twitter, which is hardly a sign of the dangerous climate of extremism that Stanley claims we are living under.
The only journalist in Britain I can think of who has been beaten up is Owen Jones who was deliberately targeted in 2019. These right-wing columnists with huge platforms, regular media appearances and the ear of the powerful like to think they are free speech rebels, and are as brave as Voltaire or Germaine de Stael, for penning angry articles about Muslims and multiculturalism from their Islington town houses. They are not under any threat for their beliefs, and they can say anything they like and face no repercussions.
One flavour of extremism is much more dangerous to society than others
Any ideology or religion can produce extremists, whatever way you define extremism, but they don’t all produce them in the same number. I have met a few left-wing people who defend Joesph Stalin or North Korea, positions I consider to be extreme, but they are vanishingly rare.
On the far-right, we see extremists influencing governments across the West, gaining huge followings and instigating mass shootings. One flavour of extremism is much more dangerous to society than others.
Handwaving the other’s bigotry and opposition crackdowns
As well as there being problems defining an extremist, I don’t trust this government to fairly implement any definition of extremism. You could argue that trashing ULEZ cameras and Welsh farmers protesting in Cardiff over environmental legislation is as disruptive as what Just Stop Oil does, however, we all know that this new definition won’t be used against farmers or drivers. They will be used against climate activists, students and Muslims.
This new definition of extremism seems like another expansion of state power directed against those who oppose the government, such as the crack down on climate protests that the United Nations objected to or calls to ban the Palestine Solidarity Campaign or others.
Without a definition of extremism that is logical and is universally applicable to tell us what the extreme views are (separate from those who promote violence) then we are no closer to understanding what society should accept and it shouldn’t. If we’re going by hand waving about who sends death threats, then all this talk of extremism is just a cover for Islamophobia or a desire to stop annoying climate protesters.
