Terrorism and extremism: concepts and historical roots

Terrorism is the use of, or the threat of, violence against civilians to intimidate the population for political or ideological aims; extremism is a system of views that favours sharp, often violent methods and does not tolerate differing opinion. In every country such phenomena are defined by law: Uzbekistan has the laws “On Combating Terrorism” (2000) and “On Combating Extremism” (2018). There is no single universally accepted international definition of terrorism, but UN Security Council Resolution 1373 of 28 September 2001 (adopted after the attacks in the United States on 11 September 2001) and the UN Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy of 8 September 2006 set out cooperation between states. Terrorism is not peculiar to any religion, nation or region: it has been committed in the name of various ideologies, religious and secular; for this reason researchers stress not equating it with any faith. In Islamic history the Kharijite movement (Khawarij) arose in 657, after the battle of Siffin, when a group in the army of the caliph Ali ibn Abi Talib broke away from him after he agreed to an arbitration over authority; they regarded those who committed a major sin as outside the faith and fought against them, Ali was killed in 661 by a supporter of the movement, and the Umayyad and Abbasid caliphs fought the Kharijites in the 7th–9th centuries. Historians study the movement as an early example of religio-political conflict.