extremist, extremism – Extremism is the possession of extreme views on politics or religion, which are anathema to mainstream views. Avoid use with Islamic, Muslim or Islamist, but more specifically and accurately describe according to social or geographic affiliation, and potentially how views are outside the mainstream and global understanding of the religion. The Arabic modern term for extremist is ‘Mutatarif’ and extremism is ‘Tataruf’.
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Reuters: A person who goes to extremes particularly in terms of political actions, practices or doctrines. Try to avoid as extremist is probably even more vague in meaning than other debatable or emotive words like radical or terrorist. Try to be more specific about what the person does or believes – “gunman”, “bomber, “hijacker”, “protester” etc.
