Defining and Illustrating “Extremism” Using the Largest Investigation into Islam in Prison

In the context of a damaging absence of clarity, we define “Islamist Extremism” as: the absolutely divided and antagonistic Worldview of the “Us”-true-Muslim “in-group” who must strive to live in an “Islamic” State versus “Them”-non-Muslim’ and “wrong”-Muslim “out-groups” who are stripped of their human status due to their opposition to “true Islam.” We illustrate this definition of “Extremism” - including showing how Islamist Extremism is different from Mainstream Islam - using fresh empirical data from the largest ever study of Islam and Muslims in prison. We proceed to show how this definition of “Extremism” can be used as the basis for understanding processes of radicalization and de-radicalization in and outside prison. We then extrapolate from the case of Islamist Extremism in prison to suggest a working definition of “Extremism” more generally as: any absolutely divided “Us” versus “Them” Worldview by which a “chosen” in-group strips “condemned” out-groups of their basic human qualities, properties and rights and thereby sets them up for harm.