What makes an extremist? A call for violence? The encouragement of discrimination or hatred towards a particular group? A bid to overthrow the apparatus of the state? Or, whoever the government of the day deems so?
According to the Conservative government’s much-derided new definition, extremism is the “promotion or advancement of an ideology based on violence, hatred or intolerance, that aims to: (1) negate or destroy the fundamental rights and freedoms of others; or 2) undermine, overturn or replace the UK’s system of liberal parliamentary democracy and democratic rights; or (3) intentionally create a permissive environment for others to achieve the results in (1) or (2).”
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