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.