Not All Types of Extremism Are Terrorism – Conflating the Two Is Dangerous

More recently, the former home secretary, Sajid Javid, argued that extremism has “gone from being a minority issue to one that affects us all … and the way we all live our lives is under unprecedented attack”.

But extremism and terrorism should not be so simply interlinked.

Language Matters
Extremism has tended to refer to both violent and non-violent forms of political expression, whereas terrorism is predominantly violent. To be an extremist could mean anything from being a nationalist, a communist, to being an animal rights activist – as long as this ideology is regarded as extreme relative to the government’s position. However, in the 1,037 parliamentary debates we analyzed, terrorism generally referred to somebody involved in political violence.

Politicians from all parties increasingly stressed the transition from extremism to terrorism by using the terms “violent extremism” and “non-violent extremism” as a substitute for one another. Extremism was often framed as a pathway into terrorism.

But it’s worrying to extend the meaning of terrorism in this way to cover both violent and non-violent extremism. A person’s understanding of something shapes how they respond to it. So a child who views the sea as a playground will swim and play, whereas a fisherman will view it as a livelihood, casting his rod and nets accordingly. Put differently, the way extremism and terrorism are framed by politicians reflects and shapes how the police and security officials implement policy and how the public perceive these policies.

Targeting non-violent extremism as if it were terrorism is a problem because it directs counter-terrorism efforts against people’s political identities instead of political violence. Doing so closes off possible opportunities for dialogue.

Too Much of an Assumption
The area of counter-terrorism policy which this most closely relates to is the Prevent program. The Prevent duty, which extends to teachers and university staff, seeks to safeguard against vulnerable individuals being drawn into political violence. According to 2017-18 official statistics, 7,318 people were subject to a referral under the Prevent program, due to concerns that they were vulnerable to being drawn into terrorism. Of these, 14 percent were referred for concerns related to Islamist extremism and 18 percent for concerns related right-wing extremism.

Our analysis shows that what was previously solely considered “terrorism” is increasingly being framed interchangeably as “extremism”. And the meaning of non-violent extremism is gradually being reduced to the point where it can only be understood as terrorism. Under current counter-terrorism policy, certain public bodies are endowed with authority to monitor non-violent extremism as if it were terrorism.

All this reflects an underlying assumption that extremism always functions as a pathway into terrorism. This assumption has been used to legitimize counter-terrorism measures against both violent and non-violent extremism. These measures no longer focus on the behaviors or support for political violence – instead they focus on the ideologies which do not conform to the state’s definition of “normal” values.

Tackling extremism can help prevent terrorism, but only if the distinctions between them are properly understood. Conflating extremism and terrorism may even undermine counter-terrorism due to issues such as community alienation. That’s why challenging the assumption that all extremism leads to terrorism is important in improving policy responses to the very real threat of political violence.

Daniel Kirkpatrick is Research Fellow, Conflict Analysis Research Centre, University of Kent. Recep Onursal is Assistant Lecturer and PhD candidate in International Conflict Analysis, University of Kent. This article is published courtesy of The Conversation.