Syed Yusuf Saadat
Research Associate, Centre for Policy Dialogue
E-mail: saadat@cpd.org.bd
Extremism means “the quality or state of being extreme” or “the advocacy of extreme measures or views”. The genesis of extremism is not always clear. Some theories suggest that extremism is created by vested interests to accomplish political goals by taking unfair advantage of people who are in socially difficult circumstances. Others say that extremism is vindictive in nature. According to this view, individuals who have gone through long phases of negative experiences in life, such as humiliation, oppression, or torture, often choose extremism as a form of retaliation. Extremism is sometimes also thought of a last resort measure. When individuals perceive that they have exhausted all the options on the table, they may opt for extremism as a final desperate attempt to fulfil their demands. Extremism may also originate out of ignorance. Extremists often have a fundamentally distorted perspective on the world where there is a constant “us versus them” or “good versus evil” dynamic struggle going on. Such perverse ideologies emphasize zero-sum outcomes where the benefit to one party comes at the loss to the other party.
Extremists are not only extreme in their views and actions, but also extreme in their psychology. By nature, extremism transforms the composition of a normal human psyche by replacing kindness with apathy and love with hatred. Thus extremism does not simply lead to one human being killing another human being – it leads to the killing of humanity itself. Therefore, extremism is a serious mental illness which thrives on the destruction of life.
We are now at a critical juncture in the fight against extremism. As the world is being transformed by the Fourth Industrial Revolution, a wave of unemployed youth are sweeping across the labour markets of most countries. In developed nations, technology is overtaking education and workers are being replaced with robots. In many less developed countries, economic growth is being driven by rapid structural change. As traditionally agrarian economies are swiftly becoming industrialized, the needs of the employers are changing. Hence, we observe that there is often a skills gap – where the skills possessed by the workers and skills required by the employers are not the same. Such a skills gap is a growing cause for concern for the labour markets of many countries of the world. According to the International Labour Organization (ILO), about 71 million young people globally were unemployed in 2017, while about 22 per cent of all youth were not in employment, education or training. Such high levels of underutilisation of labour not only represent missed opportunities for the economy, but also potential risks for society.
Large masses of unemployed young people pose a serious threat to the social and political stability of a country. Unemployed youth are prime targets for extremists who are looking for new recruits to join their malevolent cause. Research has shown that a large share of extremists belong to the youth cohort. Extremist groups especially target young people because they can be manipulated easier than adults, and youth with no prior police record allow for more operational freedom. Youth can be the targets of radicalisation irrespective of their education, social background and economic status. However, unemployment is widely cited in the literature as a prime reason behind the radicalisation of youth. Joblessness at a young age may lead to feelings of helplessness and worthlessness, accompanied with a belief that the world is, at large, an unfair place. Hence, unemployed youth are mentally vulnerable which makes them highly susceptible to the lures of extremism. Therefore, pre-emptive measures are required to protect young people and prevent the proliferation of extremism.