The Cost of Extremism

are two possible methods for struggling for national or political rights: peaceful struggle and violent struggle. The correct method is to pursue one’s goals through peaceful, non-extreme means. If, instead, an extreme, violent approach is adopted, it leads to two harms at the same time. First, the community has to endure unnecessary suffering. Second, once an extremist method becomes established as a tradition, it begins to be seen as the highest standard of struggle. Even when it proves ineffective, people continue with it because abandoning it makes them feel they have given up the religiously required standard. They feel they have chosen concession over resolve and retreat over action. One form of this extremism is what is called extremism itself. Extremism means planning one’s actions while ignoring realities and possibilities. It means allowing emotions to guide one’s path instead of reason, choosing haste over foresight, and preferring sudden leaps over gradual progress. Such a person puts enthusiasm ahead of foresight and leaves wisdom behind. He forgets that everything has its limits, whether an individual or a group. Ignoring limits is like someone testing the heat of burning embers by holding them in his hand, or trying to break a stone by using his head as a hammer. Every such act is a crossing of limits, and those who cross limits can never succeed in this world. (Al-Risala, February 2003)