Extremism among Highly Educated Youth in Malaysia: Conceptions and Driving Factors

Abstract

This study explores the concept of extremism from the perceptions of Malaysian higher education youth leaders as well as influencing factors of extremism. This study used a mixed-methods research design involving two phases of data collection: interview with six informants (phase 1), followed by a survey of 110 higher education respondents (phase 2). The interview protocol focuses on the concept of extremism and the factors that lead to extremism. To anal yse the interview data, a thematic approach was used in this study. Findings show t hat there are two themes in the concept of extremism namely aggressive and extreme behaviour and emotional actions among youth. There are four main themes of influential factors that emerged from this study, namely, religious misunderstandings, ideologies as opposed to religious teachings, radical political ideologies, and failure to manage people’s differences. Findings of this study revealed t hat the external environment including the global political environment and lack of religious knowledge have the potential to influence youth ideological perceptions. With the advancement of communication and information technology, the threat of extremism worldwide might easily spread. Therefore, the themes from the analysis become an instrument for a survey study that focuses on the concept of extremism and the factors that encourage young people to become involved in extremism. Inference analysis involving t-test and one-way ANOVA was performed to see the differences based on gender and age. Results suggest that the majority of young people have a high l evel of conceptual understanding of extremism; where it has been found that three main contributing factors for youth involvement in extremism are political beliefs, political ideology, and lack of religious knowledge. Therefore, a special module to prevent youth from being influenced by this movement is needed. In addition, authorities need to have advanced high technology including the ability to manage big data in detecting and preventing the spread of dangerous ideologies.