The author discusses the problem of “religious extremism” and the status of this term as a scientific category using the example of motivation and ideological legitimation of social and political movements associated with Islam. The author refers to suicide terrorism as a special kind of extremism motivated by radical Islam. Analysing the ideological legitimisation of suicide attacks and the interrelation between religious and other aspects in suicide bomber motivation, the author comes to a conclusion that religious extremism is a product of ideological radicalisation, when the religious tradition (Islam) became adapted to the political and tactical tasks of the radical movements. However, extremism is not completely reduced to the socio-political context, because distorted religious motives play a significant role at the level of a suicide terrorist.
terrorism.
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