Unpacking Islamist And Far-Right Extremism
By Mushtaq Ul Haq Ahmad Sikander, New Age Islam
14 May 2026
The book examines how reciprocal radicalization fuels hatred, media bias, recruitment, and terrorism across Muslim and Christian extremist networks.
Main Points:
· Extremism threatens democracy, pluralism, tolerance, and social progress, and the review frames it as a growing challenge in modern democratic societies.
· It explains reciprocal radicalization, showing how Islamist and far-right groups feed off each other’s narratives, fears, and violence.
· Ebner compares groups such as the English Defence League and Hizb ut-Tahrir to show how both build binary worldviews of “us” versus “them.”
· It highlights recruitment methods, especially online propaganda, identity politics, social media, and the appeal of belonging for vulnerable individuals.
· It also criticizes biased media coverage and argues that far-right violence is often undernamed or minimized compared with violence linked to Muslims.
· Finally, it presents the book as an important academic contribution with wider relevance for understanding radicalization and terrorism beyond the case studies discussed.
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The Rage: The Vicious Circle Of Islamist And Far-Right Extremism
Author: Julia Ebner
Publisher: I.B Tauris & Co. Ltd, London
Year of Publication: 2021
Pages 253
ISBN 9780755617272
Extremism of any hue is a threat to democracy, pluralism, tolerance and progress. In the recent decades we have witnessed growth of extremism particularly in democratic countries. Some witness it as a reaction to the economic woes that are confronting youth, including the underpaid jobs and unemployment. For others it is a result of unchecked immigration, assertion of minorities and vulnerabilities of majority. These all aspects need to be academically engaged and understood. This book tries to deal with the variegated aspects related with right wing extremism. It can be very well stated that right wing extremism is growing with exclusivity for minorities. Explaining the challenges that are encountered while engaging and researching about right wing extremism, Julia Ebner very well observes, “Most violent extremist far-right sympathizers are no longer part of clearly identifiable, hierarchically structured and locally-organized groups but rather embedded within loose international networks and subcultures which policy-makers are only just beginning to understand. Security forces across the world have been largely unprepared to deal with the new emerging threat of ‘inspirational terrorism’.” (P-xix) So once the policy makers, civil society, politicians and overall the State is unaware and ill prepared about the issue of right wing extremism, they certainly will be ill equipped while dealing with consequences resulting from right wing extremism.
Ebner informs the reader about extremism and reciprocal radicalization. She conducts ethnography to understand the views, ideology and working of these right wing groups, both Muslim and Christian. Listening patiently to the far right extremist stories is how we can tackle them. English Defence League (EDL) a far right group considers others (muslims, leftists) as extremists. So it is quite interesting to know their trajectory and world view. In extremists worldview there are no muslim moderates. Same is the case with Hizb ut Tahrir. So in the Preface, she compares both these right wing organizations, “While EDL members protest against ‘the Islamisation of the West’, Hizb ut-Tahrir sees itself as in the vanguard against the ‘Westernization of Islam’. The former dreams of a Great Britain without Muslims, whereas the latter’s goal is to purify Islam from all Western influences and to re-establish a caliphate.” (P-10)
Ebner informs the reader about the book in these words, “Academics and think tanks agree that we need to understand reciprocal radicalization and its concrete manifestations and conditions better to derive practical implications and policy recommendations. This book will therefore give firsthand insights into online and offline interactions of far-right and Islamist extremists, illustrating the accelerated reciprocal radicalization dynamics.” (P-11)
The world today is faced with numerous crisis, radicalization and its inspired terrorism is an ongoing challenge for most countries. The world bodies and organizations like U.N, EU, WTO and other numerous institutions look toothless as war, terrorism, climate crisis and migration are threatening the world. In these entire crises the far right reinforces the beliefs that ultimately lead to greater number of problems and extremism. Right wing among Christians and Muslims both think about the world in binaries and believe they have the solution to all problems confronting the humanity. This type of binary particularly in Europe where Muslims are in minority leads to their constant targeting and being labelled as terrorists. So the far right creates the narrative of victimization of ‘Us’ and demonization of ‘Other.’ So an end of Al Qaeda or ISIS will not mean an end of Islamist terrorism or extremism (P-38)
Ebner, traces the ideologies of Islamism, Iranian Revolution and Afghan Jihad. Then there are savage killings, sectarianism and that in extreme cases also lead to fall of regimes. The book informs us about the process of recruitment of these far right extremism groups. Individuals who lack sense of belonging are first potential recruits of any extremist groups. The use of online propaganda is also a potential tool for recruitment. The recruitment process is also influenced and reinforced by identity politics, racial profiling and power of social media. It is interesting that ISIS annexed Mosul in 2014 using social media. Now this influence is also witnessed in mainstream media, as its pattern is changing too with quick catchy headlines.
Muslims have been rendered as scapegoats in the war on terrorism. Whenever any terror attack is executed, the media, politicians, far right are always the first ones to jump the bandwagon of blaming the Muslims for the same. But research has proved it beyond doubt that terrorist attacks by far-right extremists are more in number and frequency but the attacks executed by Muslims receive far more attention (P-112). Media coverage against Muslims is biased and prejudiced and attacks by far-right non-Muslim extremists are not named as terrorism, but same is not the case with muslims. Many times, fake news gets it all wrong and people do believe it. These media houses create West versus Islam narrative.
It is quite surprising to know how ISIS celebrated Donald Trump’s win, as it reinforced its beliefs. Also, the far-right term is used frequently for Christian extremism, to browbeat its terrorist fangs, whereas same treatment is not met when any muslim is involved. The case studies of few countries in West have been undertaken by the learned researcher, who informs us how the far-right terrorism operates in its various cities. She also gives various suggestions about how to break this vicious cycle of reciprocal radicalization.
This radicalization is unique one, because it feeds on extremism of the other group. The Muslims get radicalized because the Christians are radicalized, Islamophobic and vice versa. This book is a very important contribution in the conflict, radicalization and terrorism studies. It is a must read for anyone who intends to understand how the far-right Muslim and Christian networks reinforce the hatred against each other, that leads to radicalization and ultimately to terrorism. The scope of this work, although constrained to few cities of two countries, but the conclusions drawn from the same, certainly has wider impact. They can help us understand the phenomenon of reciprocal radicalization in other countries where muslims exist as minorities. It is a very well researched and documented academic work. Ebner deserves all our praise for engaging with such an important theme baffling the contemporary societies.
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M. H. A. Sikander is Writer-Activist based in Srinagar, Kashmir.
URL: https://newageislam.com/books-documents/unpacking-islamist-far-right-extremism/d/140019
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