It has now been a while that the politicised OFSTED has been looking to combat "Islamic extremism" in schools etc. They started off being critical of schools with 90+% muslim students not offering a "christian-style prayer" in the morning, and ended up alleging that a Christian church of England school was putting its students at risk of Islamic Extremism.

An issue that is often ignored is where does this extremism come from, where does it gain strength and who does it effect.

Many non Muslims consider extermism to be when Muslims go too deep into their religion. Its an understandable view for non Muslims because non Islamic books of scripture have been corrupted and there are extreme things in them.

But Islam is different.

Moderation is a part of Islam and the Qur'an and sunnah both tell us to be moderate. (this moderate is not the same as the modern western translation of "moderate" which means watered down - drinking, ot praying, fornicating etc is not a sign of moderation) and problems occur when people move away from scripture.

Those Muslims taught in Islamic institutions or who have been kept in touch with Islam over their lives will not become extreme.

The ones that do become extreme often are those who have been given a westerners-satifying secular upbringing. they are kept away from their faith, only given small morsels of Islam that is in line with their cultural needs, but nothing too deep.

When these people inevitable have a clash of identities, and do not have the core understanding of Islam others have, they are easily swayed and will often be swayed by unsound arguments, jump into positions that are extreme and cause fitnah.

Not all of these people will fall into the traps, many will find good teachers and gain a good moderate understanding of Islam. But it only takes a handful to cause problems for the whole community and we all get tarred by the same brush once that happens.