Extremism

Once again, a letter in my newspaper this morning insists that religion is the cause of pretty much all the world's violence, evil and war. This is untrue and should not go unchallenged. The issue is not religion but extremism, and it would be wrong and dangerous to focus on any one particular area in which extremist forces are at work rather than on that central issue of extremism itself. Extremism in religion is certainly a very real and current danger, but extremism in politics, extremism in culturally or tribally diverse areas, extremism linked to personality cults, extremism fuelled by the gaps between rich and poor, between powerful and powerless, between those who judge unjustly and those who are judged against . . . here is the real problem. Religion becomes an extremist force when those sorts of gaps leave people believing they are denied rights, freedoms, privileges, wealth, that ought to be theirs. Focus on one place where extremists are at work and you miss the point: extremism happens when things are unfair and unequal, and always will, whatever labels get attached to it.