LONDON: The idea that “radical ideology” is a core factor in motivating extremism — a notion which has become “quite fashionable” in the UK in recent years — should be treated with caution, UK experts have warned.

Jane Kinninmont, deputy head and senior research fellow of the Middle East and North Africa program at Chatham House, said that extremism is driven by a “whole complex of social and political factors,” rather than “deeply religious ideological factors.”

Speaking at the launch of a report by the Henry Jackson Society on Thursday, she identified divergent definitions of extremism as a barrier to countering terrorism.

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