Extreme and Non-Violent? Exploring the Threat Posed by Non-Violent Extremists

For a long time, extremism has been monopolized by Islamist groups, but that view is rapidly changing with the advent of far-right and eco-radical extremist groups. Different groups — with diverse ideologies — are emerging and posing a serious threat to the establishment.

While violent extremists have long been discussed and studied by researchers, non-violent extremists have often been overlooked. Mostly relegated to the footnotes of academic literature, non-violent extremists constitute a cohort that is actively engaged in ideologically challenging the state. In the West, they operate freely due to their rejection of violence. Nevertheless, their role as a possible ‘conveyor belt to terrorism’ has sparked widespread calls to ban them in Western countries.

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