Do you think there are extremist sections in every ethnicity?

[Justanobservation]

Just something I'm starting to believe, especially in the UK. Without naming. But I'm sensing an underground current of something with two large particular groups people identify with. I'm not going to name my ethnicity as I know already in the last and still sadly active in small corners these extremist groups still exist but I'm pretty sure some of these other groups also want their blood. There's definitely a them and us sadly, when we should all be one.

Do you think there are extremist sections in every ethnicity?

Do you think there aren’t?

Do you think there are kind people in every ethnicity?

Do you think there are storytellers in every ethnicity?

Do you think there are parents who love their children in every ethnicity?

Do you think there are people who feel pain when they break a bone in every ethnicity?

Do you think there are people who’ve looked up at the moon in every ethnicity?

I wonder …

Yes.

I don’t know what the OP is getting at. Please be a bit more clear and then people can respond.

Your OP isn't clear but just by the title alone, of course there is.

*are

Use of the word ‘ethnicity’ is a bit ominous.

two large particular groups people identify with
Identify with?

I think some have more than others. Certainly heard of a lot more Islamic extrrmist attacks then Sikh extremist attacks.

Of course!

Islam and Sikhism aren’t ethnicities.

Really unwise to be feeding this particular brand of ‘speculation’.

(My hand is hovering over the Report button …)

The well known Sikh and Muslim ethnicities…

@SpecialistSubject why report, what group rules is it breaking?

Why report them ,instead of cancelling them why not converse and see what they have to say, perhaps your misjudging them.

All people are the same so for sure you find will this in all ethnicities,

Oh people are people. Of course there are. Some more violently disposed than others. Extreme left, extreme right - no differences at all and both full of hatred.

This. There will always be people whose views are on the margins, whether we are talking about race, art, science, politics, religion.

Obviously. No matter what it is you will have people that take it to the extreme one way or another. Even on the most innocuous topics.

Years ago, I read the book Black Hawk Down. The author interviewed many people on each side of that particular scrap including Somalis that had guarded the captured US soldier. He said that when he asked Somalis if they wanted peace they almost all said yes. When he asked what if that meant compromising with the opposing clan the almost universal response was on the lines of "not those dogs!".

He came to the conclusion that what people want is not peace but victory. He was, of course, interviewing people who were at war. I imagine that things are less stark in a country at peace.

As to the question, of course there are extreme elements in each ethnicity. Leicester was a recent example of this. Among whites we have Patriotic Alternative and Britain First, among others. I'm not aware of parallel groups in other ethnicities but the sentiment is probably there.

An Italian colleague told me that he thought Britain a very integrated society. He said that there was much more racism in Italy and that non-white people tended to live in their own areas with very little mixing. I don't assume from this that the UK is a multiracial paradise but I think most people are tolerant and that the extremes are a minority.

Of course! One's skin colour or religion does not prevent them from becoming extremists.

I think that people are people wherever you are. I think that extremism is to do with a combination of miseducation or very poor education, the individual having unresolved trauma and so having uncontrolled feelings which are misdirected, and usually manipulation by third party.

I think manipulation is up by a billion percent at the moment though why I couldn't say, especially in relation to young people teenagers and in their twenties. I also think that the level of trauma is up in young people because of changes in what they read, their role models, the internet, video games. It is a pretty toxic mix, pretty scary really. And having a black market now flooded with weapons is not going to help.

A BBC report a couple of years ago noticed that extremism or domestic terrorism was on the up and it was thought that teenagers at school were the main targets for manipulation - but no conclusion was made about who was behind all the manipulation or its motivation. Though maybe it is the white elephant in the room.

In several parts of the world now and in the past it has been alleged that 2 different ethnic groups have been manipulated so that they hate each other or one deeply hates the other, meaning that violence and destruction is inevitable.

I think that children who are brought up without a high level of trauma or who are helped to process are unlikely to jump on the extremism bandwagon but it seems almost trendy at the moment to be hands off, not "helicopter", meaning that a lot of kids are wide open to manipulation.

I'd be interested to know what you have seen, OP, which has led you to post this, even if you do not want to name the ethnicities involved.

So you are unwilling to name the proselytising misogynistic fundamentalist rump of a 7th century movement? The one that condones FGM in sub-Saharan Africa and feels at liberty to migrate to Europe in pursuit of a wider platform for freedom and economic opportunity, while continuing the repression of their sisters, wives, mothers and daughters?

Read Ayaan Hirsi Ali's book Heretic for a lived account of the twisted lie.

@EffortlessDesmond sounds like a good book...but it's not Islam I was thinking of.

Wow! There’s so much venom here! FWIW I find Ayaan Hirsi Ali quite extreme too. Also the OP asked about ethnicities. If you’ve read the book and claim to know so much about ‘the terror of Islam’ you would know its not an ethnicity.

FGM is practiced by Christian communities in Africa too, it seems more of an African cultural practice rather than a religious one.

Liberty to migrate to Europe… hmmm maybe this is the same brand of Liberty that White European Christians used when they pillaged their way across the Muslim world and carved it up amongst themselves like a roast dinner?

And finally that old tired trope… the oppression of the poor Muslim woman by her male relatives. You don’t speak for all of us so stop assuming that we all live under fear, and secretly yearning to be rescued. Many of us are stronger and more practicing in our faith than our husbands, fathers, sons, brothers.

You’re free to choose what you want, believe what you want but please stop being hateful and angry.

@Lemonlettuce I've been away or I would have replied to you sooner.

This is not my religion, so no dog in the race. I read Ayaan Hirsch Ali's book out of interest, and her journey from good Islamic girl, via Somalian refugee camp to Dutch refugee to MP and atheist is fascinating reading.

I enjoy Islamic culture, although I am a humanist. Family and friends have lived for years in Gulf Arab countries, and my nephew and his wife live in the KSA, which is changing fast. I know that Islam encourages women's education and that the Koran doesn't suggest women's subjugation. But all that said, there are countries and territories where Islam is used as a cloak for mysogynistic behaviours and practices. Boko Haraam, Taliban Afghanistan, Iran, Islamic Brotherhood to name just four current live regimes.