Extremism is part of being human

Extremism is an aspect of humanity common to all of us, and is not necessarily a negative trait, a University of Cambridge researcher will argue at a presentation of his work tomorrow.

Shahzad Shafqat (pictured) worked as a psychologist in his native Pakistan and spent five years with the Pakistan Air Force, before coming to Cambridge to study for an MPhil and PhD on the Psychology of Extremism at the Department of Social and Developmental Psychology.

His research aims to establish an understanding of the psychology of extremism by looking at the deep-seated tendencies that exist within all of us. The idea is to investigate whether extremism is a condition or a judgement on a condition.

"Since 9/11, a huge amount of research - a lot of it pretty useless - has tried to explain extremism, leading to a proliferation of so-called experts who are far-removed from the actual people or issues that they claim to study," said Shafqat.

"Much of it has focused on studies of particular individuals or groups. The stereotypical image of an extremist is an angry young man from a deprived socio-economic background, radicalised on grounds of ideology or religion, and wants to take revenge on the ’rest of the world’ for the hardships that he and his people have experienced."

Shafqat argues that this is a misguided and narrow perception of a much more complex phenomenon. To get a deeper understanding of the dynamics of extremism, he carried out an extensive survey of ’ordinary’ people, across nations, cultures and languages, to find out what they consider to be extreme.

His finding - that extremism is an innate human attribute and thus cannot be eradicated - has led him to being invited to give seminars at military academies in Europe. In speaking to those directly involved in conflict situations, he hopes to increase understanding of the nature of extremism and foster confidence in their own ability and capacity to increase acceptance and tolerance.

Tomorrow Shafqat will argue that the human traits that drive us to work hard and to achieve great things are also those responsible for pushing us to carry out acts of violence.

"We might like to think that the people we call terrorists are nothing like us but actually they are not much different," he said. "And a greater public understanding of psychology and extremism will help us take a more rational view of human behaviour and how it has been part of our social world since recorded history," he said.

"Terrorism has terrible human consequences and can’t be condoned in any way. But we do need to take a more measured and holistic view of where it comes from within the human psyche and how the response to it, from governments and society at large, helps to shape what happens."

Part of the problem lies with terminology and how labelling shapes our responses, suggests Shafqat. "The word "extremism" has been adopted by the media and has become synonymous with terrorism - and that leads us to believe that all extremists are terrorists," he said.