Extremism

The other night, Yasmin Alibhai-Brown was on the Sky News Preview and she made a telling point: call them what we like, the lone-wolf attackers who kill and maim people in the name of ISIS or Allah, are extremists. They are not religious fanatics: a lot of the terrorists who have been caught in Europe are either converts to Islam or young men with no interest in religion at all.

I would take Yasmin's point one step further and say there is no difference between so-called 'Islamist' extremists and the white extremists from the many groups springing up all over Europe: Pegida in Germany, the Front National in France, the Party for Freedom in the Netherlands, Jobbik in Hungary, the EDL and the SDL in the UK. These groups are the domain mainly (though not exclusively) of young white men.

All of these groups belong to the hard right of politics. They are anti-democratic. They are anti women's rights. The European groups seem to hark back to an age of male supremacy - white male supremacy - an age that never existed. They seem to be not very well educated and they are easily manipulated by people like Marine Le Pen and Geert Wilders. The Islamist extremists seek a perfect world (not heaven - and there's no talk of virgins) in which Islamist men will have all the power.

The questions we need to ask are: why do young men join these groups and what can be done to stop them?

In the past, I've got really annoyed when people told me how men in the West feel disempowered. Their role in life has changed. They are no longer seen as the breadwinners. I don't buy all of this: the second half of the 20th century was a shock for a lot of people. Think back to how life was for middle class and some working class women in the UK 50 or 60 years ago. Even if they worked in a well-paid job, it was expected they would give it up when they married. Their 'place' was at home with the children. Nowadays some women are out there in the workplace because they want to be, but others are working because otherwise their families couldn't have the life they want. Life has changed for everyone. Boys leaving school at 15 used to be able to walk into a job. Not any more. Now people have to live with zero hours or short term contracts, jobs that pay the minimum wage, outrageous rents, the impossibility of being able to buy their own home.

Is it just that men are finding it harder to adapt? And a small number are taking refuge in extreme right wing politics?

And can we do anything about that?