Causes of the Rise of Extremist Islamist Groups and Their Persistence (Ways to Counter Them)

Extremist currents take different forms all around the world. The transition from the traditional society to modernity paves the way for the rise of crises. Many foreign and domestic factors including deep economic discrepancy among the people, authoritarianism, fragility of states, lack of legitimacy and of people’s participation in their affairs, ethnic and tribal tendencies, cultural impoverishment and marginalization of a group of people and most importantly the identity crisis give rise to lasting extremism. This is a struggle against the existing values, a response to the deficiencies and marginalization. In this article, the author studies why the collective action of fundamentalist and Islamist groups in the society has taken different shapes over time. Some scholars trace them in history, economy and society, whereas the individual action and collective action of the extremist Islamist groups
should be examined separately.