Factors for creating extremism

An introduction

Extremist organizations are joined by individuals from different cultural and social backgrounds by virtue of the organizations’ effective polarization tools which are active in exploiting the kind of imbalance experienced by different social strata. Therefore, the effectiveness of these tools differs from one place to another due to class differences that may facilitate the polarization process in one place, while resisting it in another.

In addition, there are non-social, non-political, non-national, non-religious and non-economic factors that drive innovation and revival of radical old ideas. We cannot turn a blind eye to the factors related to the ideology of an individual who may suffer from psychological problems pushing him towards violence as a means of satisfying his internal desires.

In general, we cannot limit extremism to armed activities, since it has an active intellectual aspect that attracts individuals and cultivates the idea of rebellion in their minds from political or religious angles. This takes place before asking them to turn this idea into a reality that has a detrimental effect on the existing political system. If the community intervenes in a timely manner through qualifying programs that aim at urbanizing the extremists or those who have extremist ideas, the community will be able to defeat extremism in its early stages and with less effort than that which may be exerted to stop its spread among the members of the society.

Despite the different types of armed extremism, both national and religious, they all agree to target civilians as a means to prove the failure of the existing regime. Extremists push the public to pressure the regime on better fulfilling its security functions in an effort to create a kind of general popular rebellion. In addition, societal failure to create an ideological deterrent for confronting extremist ideology by presenting a critical vision of its violent ideas and its mechanisms of action is considered a helping factor in boosting the work of the extremist organizations.

Therefore, this study seeks to address the different factors that lead to the emergence of extremist organizations in certain societies, in addition to the public and government dealing with such ideas, and how the society can be an obstacle to the expansion of any defamed ideas to its intellectual system.

Psychological factor

Psychological dysfunction plays an important role in softening the internal psychological resistance that the individual constitutes against his innate tendency towards societal violence before the option of surrender is being presented as an imperative that must be followed as a means of achieving self-satisfaction. Terrorism has many types (ideological and non-ideological terrorism) and these types differ in the method of formation and execution of attacks. Despite that, these types are similar in their violent features and a number of its main causes include the psychological factor and its defensive disorder.

The internal defensive disorder is generated by the individual’s unconscious child repression. Child repression is the result of the authoritarian behavior practiced on the child as a result of inappropriate societal behavior patterns within educational institutions such as the school or the family, or through personal friendships of the child. Such friendships may include the element of forcing to do acts that contradict the dignity of the child, leading to the formation of internal hatred that remains suppressed for a period before it finds its way out.

In addition, authoritarian behavior patterns may lead to internal frustration resulting from the lack of self-satisfaction. This self-satisfaction is generated by the happiness of self-affirmation, which leads to the individual’s exit from the community system or customs and traditions and to pursue other illegal attempts to satisfy him or herself that has suffered social denial.

We cannot ignore the inherent destructive impulses within the individual because they have a pivotal role in driving individuals to engage in violent behaviors such as the “instinct of death” that is manifested through the enjoyment of murder and mutilation of bodies. The owners of this instinct resort to the discharge of their internal violent feelings by practicing the highest levels of violence that make them feel their lost self-satisfaction. This may be the most serious psychological factor, although it is the easiest to discover, because of the lack of indifference towards society and its suffering. It also takes longer in treatment than the cases that come as a result of other causes. This is because of its instinctive nature, which is a major cause in the weakness of the receptor to external penetration attempts.

The delirium of greatness is also a catalyst for the individual to resort to the act of terrorism as a result of his desire to do anything that makes him prominent in society. He is specifically against the idea of community equality because it is seen to have negative consequences on his societal status, which deserves re-positioning because of his mental abilities. Therefore, this individual may make several attempts to prove his or her entitlement to a better leadership position within the society. Having exhausted all his attempts, he resorts to a violent path not only to prove himself and achieve his goal of having a desired social influence, but also to achieve personal revenge from an environment that hindered him from achieving success.

We must not forget that mental illnesses such as obsessive compulsive disorder make the individual take seriously all societal behaviors and act against them in a violent and harmful manner. This individual will not spare a single moment without attacking the society as a reaction to these authoritarian ideas that invaded his mind and dominated him. He will never regret being a reaction from his point of view.

There are a number of other psychological illnesses that may lead the individual to violence, such as schizophrenia. Those people are suffering from a psychological state that completely separates them from reality and makes them feel that they are living elsewhere, making it easy for them to exercise violence, or have personality disorders or being extremist in negative emotions.

Besides, we find that some people suffer from psychological problems in which the personal ego dissolves in the collective ego. This type is self-denying and defines itself through the collective actions of the society in which it lives. Therefore, the failure of the mechanism of the absorptive society is an enough justification to push them towards the extremist organizations that give them the tools of collective action to achieve their collective self. This motivates them to sacrifice their lives in order to preserve the entity of the organization as it is their only means for social survival.

Social and economic factor

The community may be an important factor in pushing its members towards extremism without realizing it despite the general effort it is making to confront it. The community’s outstanding public problems cause public dissatisfaction, giving rise to a general desire to change existing administrative policies due to its failure to meet popular desires.

The absence of social justice is a powerful incentive for individuals to resort to violence in order to change the policy of the fait accompli or to force the ruling regime to adopt a policy that is different to that list, which has led to the deepening of class differences, in addition to depriving a very popular class of its basic social rights. Individuals who resort to violence as a result of the absence of social justice believe that they do a great benefit to the society by showing the anger that the society’s most harmed groups have. For this reason, they indulge in their aggressive actions and present themselves as a champion of the marginalized popular class.

Also, we may find that some societal groups (which may be represented by a person) acquire significant financial resources within a given country by controlling influential leadership positions that deliberately lend a blind eye to the suffering of marginalized community groups in favor of the more prosperous category. This constitutes a problem in the mechanism of the distribution of community groups, which may be a sufficient justification for extremist organizations to attract individuals under the pretext of resistance to class hegemony.

In addition, the low levels of education in some countries and the accompanying lack of individual awareness may be a catalyst for extremist organizations to intensify their polarization work, which feeds mainly on ignorance and lack of knowledge. Therefore, we find that these organizations are active mainly in countries with educational problems such as the countries of the Middle East and Central Asia, while it is difficult to penetrate the social structure interconnected to the countries of Europe. On the other hand, there is an inverse correlation between human development rates and individual trends of extremism. The lower such rate within the society, the greater the ability of extremist organizations to influence its members.

The phenomenon of unemployment or job deprivation is also a catalyst for its members to adopt means of popular protest methods to show the extent of their suffering to those who control the distribution of power within the state. This may be done through peaceful protests, or by a violent approach against the state and its institutions. Although most citizens, in fact, pay close attention to economic policies than the others related to political aspects, the poor initial results prompt them to think about the management of the latter. This was evident during the Arab Spring, which began as an economic-oriented protest movement, but it soon expanded to include political reforms. This led to violence by attacking government and security headquarters in order to subject the Arab Spring governments to their demands.

Therefore, the national income distribution mechanism has an indirect relationship with pushing citizens to adopt extremist ideas towards their countries. Although this mechanism varies from one place to another, it must take account of class differences within the society. It should also be distributed through economic patterns that achieve social justice by providing an equal level of social services. This is evident in a country like the United Arab Emirates, whose social services rank high among the countries of the world. This has led to the erosion of the violent societal tendency against the state after it succeeded in containing the extremists by achieving their desired desires. Therefore, we find that the presence of extremist organizations in the UAE is negligible compared to other countries that suffer from a distributional imbalance in their services, despite the service resources they possess.

In addition, poverty has an indirect relationship with the process of creating extremism by generating a state of general frustration among citizens, which later leads to the idea of stopping to believe in the state’s effective role in the society. The frustration generated as a result can lead after reaching high levels to violent activities. This takes place after the extremists’ sound minds are distorted by the media of the extremist organizations that present themselves as advocates of their cause.

Poverty, therefore, creates a fertile environment for the expansion of extremist thought among members of the lower-income class, yet it still needs a tonic to ensure a smooth change for some individuals. For example, countries such as India or a number of African countries have high levels of poverty but still do not suffer from extremist organizations because of the absence of the incentive to push individuals towards violence.

The financial services offered by extremist organizations to their fighters attract other individuals, as the organization is responsible for the daily income of its fighters, as well as the provision of housing and marriage requirements, which are an obstacle to the lower income classes and those suffering from extreme poverty. For example, in a report to the US Congressional Research Service, the Islamic State or Daesh provides monthly salaries to his fighters ranging from $400 to $1,200, plus $50 per wife, $25 per child, in addition to housing and fuel for free. Despite the security risks surrounding the process of joining extremist organizations, the extreme poverty and the loss of hope for the state’s improvement of their future living conditions left them to risk their lives, after losing national sentiment.

Religious factor

Religion is one of the most important tools used to mobilize individuals to commit violence on the pretext of defending their right to practice faith. In recent years, religious violence has emerged in the arena of global extremism at the expense of national or separatist violence or other types that are based on class or cultural reasons. Religion is also a social phenomenon in its practices as it leads to reciprocal relations between the institutions it represents and the individuals it embraces.

Religion-based extremism is divided into two types: one is aimed at achieving a political goal, and religion is used to strengthen its position while the other is aimed at achieving a religious goal which is difficult to achieve as a result of local, regional and international changes. Therefore, they resort to violence as a means of achieving it by force.

We can call all conflicts that evoke religion politically violent. Even those carried out by extremist organizations with religious background fall under this rule as being implemented by an extremist group having organizational structures that engage in violent action aimed at undermining the sovereignty of the national state. This is evident through the extremist organization’s attempt to control some of the territories or cities to establish its religious state in accordance with its legitimate bases in addition to the dispute of its intellectual tools with the national media tools.

Religion-based extremist groups are more cohesive than others, built on a national basis. This takes place not only because of the internal mechanism of administration, which relies on unquestioning leadership orders, but also because extremist organizations are forced to cultivate the idea of sacrificing the world for the after world.

In addition, we find that the national state may succeed in containing extremist organizations with national reference by holding a truce with it, or by undertaking to look into its demands, or even by giving those who wish to have a separate province a self-rule. On the contrary, extremist religious organizations accept the idea of appeasement only at a time of weakness as a constructive strategy for regrouping and setting priorities. Once this is over, these organizations resume their attacks because of their rejection of the idea of a national state, which it sees as an obstacle that must be removed.

It is worth mentioning that extremist organizations rely on attracting young people to the strength of religious content provided by their media tools. The content is always aimed at mobilizing the followers by showing them the strength of the organization and its steadfastness in the face of attempts of eradication in addition to its ability to achieve its religious goal related to the establishment of a religious state. The radical Islamic organizations also make comparisons between the period of ancient Islamic glory and the period of disintegration of the current inter-Islamic relations.

In order to prevent any intellectual penetration, extremists groups always invoke the suffering of the Muslim peoples in different parts of the world, before presenting themselves as advocates of their cause. Their media does not overlook the reasons for the deterioration of the situation to the domination of global imperialism on the Islamic regimes, which justifies the call to attack them later.

This explains why extremist organizations resort to the cause of Jerusalem to strengthen their justifications and war on Muslim countries, not only for the status of Jerusalem in the hearts of Arab and Muslim citizens, but because it is the only issue that does not require any material evidence to prove its grievances. The occupation of Jerusalem and the relations between a number of Muslim countries Islam and Israel are considered a sufficient reason for these organizations to convince some people of the need to join their ranks.

It is noted that the extremist organizations are always aware of the religious inclinations of the Arab citizens, which always put them on the other side of Israel. Therefore, all extremist organizations, that seek to have a strong presence in the region and increase their ability to attract individuals, aim to attack Israel and its international allies in its audio and visual productions even if it is not able to carry out attacks against it. This way, it infiltrates into the hearts of some people from the religious angle related to Jerusalem and other political angles related to the liberation from global influence.

For example, Hezbollah, with its Arab-rejected Shi’ite authority, uses the idea of war with Israel to gain more support within Arab public opinion, as well as its use of the Jerusalem cause to create a popular incubator in southern Lebanon.

Political factor

Various political factors, such as the imposition of one opinion and the exclusion of the other, play a prominent role in pushing individuals to adopt extreme visions on the national state. The absence of the reasonable space of freedom necessary to vent public anger is a motive for further political repression which extremist groups offer a way out to reality.

It is necessary here to distinguish between two types of political tyranny because of their close relationship to push individuals to adopt an illegal path of change. One of them closes the way completely before any internal opposition even if it is fragile, while the other is more intelligent as it gives a small amount of freedom, surrounded by great restrictions.

Theoretically, the former is a strong incentive for individuals to rebel against the existing regime, unlike the latter, which succeeds in discharging the pent-up negative energy in the hearts of its opponents. In practice, however, the ability of the opposite opinion within each type to crystallize in the form of terrorist organizations that are hostile to the law depends on the security performance of the state, which, if done in its proper manner, will prevent any armed opposition from emerging.

For example, a number of Gulf countries belong to the former, but their security and intelligence services have prevented any activity aimed at disrupting public security. On the other hand, a country such as Sudan belongs to the first type, but its weak security performance was a factor in the emergence of internal rebellion movements, such as those that emerged in Darfur and started a conflict with the Sudanese government in 2003 by launching attacks against the police and army security headquarters.

In addition to this, ignoring the political desires of young people to change and the failure to absorb them into political programs aimed at rehabilitating them in popular participation to determine community priorities may be a catalyst for this youth group to protest against the law, which may subsequently generate the desire to establish a regulatory body taking over the leadership of action against the state. This body may take on a political form, as was the case with the April 6 movement in Egypt, which was formed following labor protests in the city of Mahalla in the Delta of Egypt in 2008 or may be in an armed form, such as the Black Block movement, which was formed in 2012 in Egypt during mass popular protests against the Brotherhood’s rule.

Alongside this, ethnic oppression may be taken as a pretext to form armed movements against the state. In this, we find that armed ethnic groups are no different from Islamic organizations as they evoke the historical injustice of their race, make comparisons between their position in the past and the reasons that led to the deterioration of its conditions and occupation from another nation in the present. They then put the armed option as an ideal political solution which could be exploited by the state as a means of killing the cause over time.

Conclusion

Despite the multiplicity of the factors driving the individuals’ adoption of a radical ideology, the effectiveness of each factor vary from one place to another according to the environmental influences that control the cognitive side of the individual. For example, the physical aspect does not appear very much in Europe because of the good economic situation of its countries, in addition to the commitment placed on itself to achieve a high level of economic prosperity.

On the other hand, Western secularism, with its tools for everything that is religious, regardless of its religious identity, generates some suspicion for some people in their own religious rituals. Although such an act may not be legally prohibited as it falls under the right of worship recognized by Western laws, the general societal rejection generated as a reaction to the extremist terrorist bombings has established popular rejection of everything that is religious. This may lead later to the emergence of resentment among individuals with religious inclinations towards the society. Someone might do a violent job to express his anger.

It is also noted that extremist organizations exploit the individual desire to practice religious rituals freely and without any popular remarks to attract European individuals after presenting themselves as an ideal model of the desired Islamic state. We cannot deny the impact of societal suspicion of everything that is religious, in generating the sense of community alienation which extremist organizations are working to activate to generate a sense of nostalgia for them through their visual and audio productions.

It should be noted that many individuals who join the extremist organizations go to them for their desire to achieve religious ends which they could not realize. In addition, we find that a number of those who join the terrorist organizations realize the falsity of their media material only after joining them, which leads them to split in the event of an opportunity. At times, the extremists’ fear of their respective country’s reaction to their return may be an enough reason for them to continue with the extremist organization. The fear of the state of the ability of dissidents from extremist organizations to carry out terrorist attacks is an obstacle to attempts of recruiting many of them.

On the other hand, the material factor, resulting from the mismanagement of the political leadership of national financial resources, plays a prominent role in a number of Middle East countries, such as Tunisia and Jordan, which participate in large numbers in Daesh according to a report issued by the National Bureau of Economic Research in the United States. In the economic situation of these countries, we will find that they suffer from economic problems that have made the citizen, who is at the bottom of the social ladder, not interested in creating special intellectual immunity to protect him from extremism as much as he pays to cover the basic expenses that the state failed to provide. This facilitates the polarization of extremist organizations as they present themselves as a savior who seeks to lift them out of poverty.