Quotes & Sayings About Extremists

Whenever you have a crisis, you're always going to have the extremists taking advantage of the situation. — Abdallah II Of Jordan

If you're black and you oppose a progressive agenda, and you're pro life, and you're pro family, then they do not even know what to call you. You end up on some watch list for extremists. — Benjamin Carson

In the Muslim world, there are many people who have been vocal and we have been very vocal against extremists. But how to win this battle is an ongoing battle. And we must continue to wage the battle for peace. — Feisal Abdul Rauf

The academic community has in it the biggest concentration of alarmists, cranks and extremists this side of the giggle house. — William F. Buckley Jr.

We are facing an external attack against us, which is more dangerous than any other previous wars ... We are dealing with those who are extremists, who only know the language of killing and criminality. — Bashar Al-Assad

Disciples who are steadfast and immovable do not become fanatics or extremists, are not overzealous, and are not preoccupied with misguided gospel hobbies. — David A. Bednar

If we are extremists, then we are not ashamed of it, for the conditions that our people suffer are extreme, and extreme illness can not be cured with moderate medicine — Malcolm X

One day all the racists and religious extremists in this world will wake up and realize that they are living in a 60's movie. — Thisuri Wanniarachchi

In all times, and all countries especially in those countries which are divided within by religious faith, there are always fanatics who will be well contented to be regarded as martyrs. — Alexandre Dumas

Muslims are the main victims of Islamist inspired terrorism around the globe. ISIS have and other Islamist extremism group have killed thousands of Muslims across the middle east, including some Sunnis who have refused to pledge loyalty. Its members have executed imams who have denounced their activities. Their sectarianism has even spawned deadly attacks on civilians simply because they are shi'i. These extremists have determinedly created divisions to wipe out the 'grey zone' of reason and tolerance. They have conflated religion and politics and thereby poisoned Islam. — Tony McMahon

I don't think people by nature are extremists. You will never find a population of extremists. Extremists have existed throughout the centuries on all religions. And what happens is, extremists start to have more leverage when the situation is bad. — Queen Rania Of Jordan

To speak specifically of our problem with the Muslim world, we are meandering into a genuine clash of civilizations, and we're deluding ourselves with euphemisms. We're talking about Islam being a religion of peace that's been hijacked by extremists. If ever there were a religion that's not a religion of peace, it is Islam. — Sam Harris

I think extremists within the base may very well move the Democratic party away from its pro-Israel position. — Alan Dershowitz

The more we ignore Assad and negotiate an appeasement with Iran, the more Sunni and Shia extremists will multiply and flood Syria. — Ziad K. Abdelnour

[The Republicans] are always asking the Muslims to denounce their extremists. And I agree with them. But they don't take that note and do it among their own. They don't denounce their own extremists. — Bill Maher

The First Amendment allows Nazis and white extremists to do what they are going to do, and it allows for black extremists and all other types of extremists to do what they are going to do. I understand that, and I'm not opposed to that. — Niger Innis

You're always going to have extremists in every religion. — Abdallah II Of Jordan

Like most Americans, I hope and wish is that there is a peaceful resolution to the Middle East conflict. Unfortunately, there are extremists on both sides who oppose a peaceful resolution and instead choose violence. — Darrell Issa

The extremists had declared jihad against anyone and anything that challenged their vision of a pure Islamic society, and these artifacts - treatises about logic, astrology, and medicine, paeans to music, poems idealizing romantic love - represented five hundred years of human joy. They celebrated the sensual and the secular, and they bore the explicit message that humanity, as well as God, was capable of creating beauty. They were monumentally subversive. — Joshua Hammer

We must not overlook the role that extremists play. They are the gadflies that keep society from being too complacent or self-satisfied; they are, if sound, the spearhead of progress. If they are fundamentally wrong, free discussion will in time put an end to them. — Abraham Flexner

There is one Islam, unreformed, but three sets of Muslims. Medina, Mecca, and. Dissidents, reformers, whatever you want to call them. The first group are the extremists and fundamentalists, the second the great mass of Muslims who just want to live their lives in peace, and the third are reformers. — Ayaan Hirsi Ali

The Iraq conflict, while not a cause of extremism, has become a cause for extremists. — Porter Goss

The struggle in the Holy Land is no longer Palestinian versus Israeli, or Muslim versus Jew. It is between those who seek peace and extremists who promote terror. — George W. Bush

Extremists, who thrive on conflict; who do not tolerate diversity; who seek power through division and destruction. The global system they hope to create is one of new walls and new isolation, and radically smaller horizons. It is an anti-democratic, anti-economic-growth, and anti-progress agenda. — Abdallah II

Religion is very easy and whoever overburdens himself in his religion will not be able to continue in that way. So you should not be extremists, but try to be near to perfection and receive the good tidings that you will be rewarded; and gain strength by worshipping in the mornings, the nights. — Muhammad

Extremists tend to grow more extreme, not less, as problems get closer to solutions, — David Weber

Well, we definitely need a strong and clear and assertive America. That's for sure. But you've always got to build alliances. And so it's very important that we are able to build those alliances. And where we don't do what in a way to extremists want us to do, which is to make this into a battle between the West and Islam - it's not. This isn't a clash between civilizations. It's about whether the values of tolerance and respect for difference prevail. — Tony Blair

There may well be a few extremists out there somewhere calling for a militant, women-only utopia, but why should this be the definition of 'feminist' when it's already the definition of 'silly'? — Meghan Daum

The bombing in Oklahoma City has focused renewed attention on the rhetoric that's been coming from the right and those who cater to angry white men. Right-wing talk show hosts like Rush Limbaugh, Bob Grant, Oliver North, G. Gordon Liddy, Michael Reagan and others take to the air every day with basically the same format: Detail a problem, blame the government or a group and invite invective from like-minded people. Never do most of the radio hosts encourage outright violence, but the extent to which their attitudes may embolden or encourage some extremists has clearly become an issue. — Bryant Gumbel

We're here so that Afghanistan does not once again become a sanctuary for transnational extremists the way it was when al-Qaeda planned the 9/11 attacks in the Kandahar area, conducted the initial training for the attackers in training camps in Afghanistan before they moved on to Germany and then to U.S. flight schools. — David Petraeus

If politi-cians - however well-intentioned - were barred from planning, manipulating, or directing the affairs of their fellow citizens, then extremists of Right and Left alike would be kept at bay. — Tony Judt

Let's face it: There are people who are extremists in every corner of society, and whatever flag they're waving is something Bad Religion has stood against. — Greg Graffin

We haven't usually had to face the extreme questions about liberty and order because we're not a nation of extremists. We love freedom and good government both. — David Ignatius

Actually, they (extremists) wanted to take this opportunity to mobilize the people for the religious unification and to divert the government's attention from other issues in the war against terrorism. So they are using this issue as a matter of unity. — Shahbaz Bhatti

Tyranny is increasingly unsustainable in this post-cold-war era. It is doomed to failure. But it must be prodded to exit the stage with a whimper - not the bang that extremists long for. — Eskinder Nega

One thing that I feel very, very strongly is that we talk about Islamic countries, Islamic people, Islamic leaders, as either moderates or extremists. It's almost like there are only two categories of Muslims. And actually, that doesn't show respect. It shows lack of understanding of the diversity of Muslim thought. — David Miliband

We have to understand how the extremists got the way they are. Without that kind of understanding, we'd never really get to know them. I put in nothing about their childhoods. But what I have put in is stuff about the weird symbiotic relationship between us and them. — Jon Ronson

The immediate present belongs to the extremists, but the future belongs to the moderates. — Helen Suzman

As far as Zarqawi is concerned, there is a network of extremists; it's not just Zarqawi. — John Abizaid

The hatred Muslim extremists feel against the West feeds on certain conflicts in the world. — Otto Schily

Some countries such as Iran and Syria are using the commotion to distract attention from their own problems with the international community. The Palestinians, who have been deeply divided since their election, have found a common enemy in Denmark that unites them. Extremists and fundamentalists are exploiting the conflict to promote their radical agenda and win new members. — Anders Fogh Rasmussen

We cannot sway extremists with rational thought or with our ideas of right and wrong. — Roxane Gay

The truth, however, is that most Muslims appear to be "fundamental-
ist" in the Western sense of the word - in that even "moderate"
approaches to Islam generally consider the Koran to be the literal and
inerrant word of the one true God. The difference between funda-
mentalists and moderates - and certainly the difference between all
"extremists" and moderates - is the degree to which they see political
and military action to be intrinsic to the practice of their faith. In any
case, people who believe that Islam must inform every dimension of
human existence, including politics and law, are now generally called
not "fundamentalists" or "extremists" but, rather, "Islamists. — Sam Harris

While US troops may have destroyed most of those weapons, officials acknowledge at least some chemical materials may remain in Iraq, including some at a Hussein-era chemical weapons site that extremists seized in June. — Anonymous

The public takes little notice of those who want to abolish abortion. They are dismissed as extremists. If I were to argue that all abortions should be banned, the ethical discussions would go round in circles ... My view is that the only way forward is to argue for a reduction in the time limit ... saving some lives is better than saving no lives at all. I hope pro-lifers will come to share my view that some progress is better than no progress. — Nadine Dorries

One demonstration of extremists, any more than a Ku Klux Klan demonstration in the United States, is not necessarily reflective of what the rest of the country feels. — Leon Panetta

For some reason, I grew up generally believing that Japan and Korea were quite friendly. I do know that there is some bad history and the extremists on both sides are unreasonable. — Joichi Ito

Teenage girls are extremists who see the world in black-and- white terms, missing shades of gray. Life is either marvelous or notworth living. School is either pure torment or is going fantastically. Other people are either great or horrible, and they themselves are wonderful or pathetic failures. One day a girl will refer to herself as "the goddess of social life" and the next day she'll regret that she's the "ultimate in nerdosity. — Mary Pipher

They were roundly dismissed as extremists - as if nothing so extreme could possibly be true. — Karen Thompson Walker

Nor should we exclude the possibility that Islamic terrorism may begin to make common cause with Western political extremists of the far Left and far Right. — Richard Perle

Weapons of mass destruction in the hands of Islamic extremists will be a disaster for the world. — Ron Lewis

Radical Islamist extremists surely hope that an attack on Iraq will kill many people and destroy much of the country, providing recruits for terrorist actions. — Noam Chomsky

'Jihad' can mean holy war to extremists, but it means struggle to the average Muslim. — Feisal Abdul Rauf

We never get any gratitude for what we do. We just are constantly ripped. We are constantly complained about. We are constantly attacked. And people are fed up with it. People are fed up being told they haven't done enough, that they don't do enough, that they don't care enough, that they're mean-spirited, that they're extremists, when this is the most loving and charitable, the most giving country the world has ever seen. — Rush Limbaugh

In every community there are little knots of fantastic extremists who loudly proclaim that they are striving for righteousness, and who, in reality, do their feeble best for unrighteousness. Just as the upright politician should hold in peculiar scorn the man who makes the name of politician a reproach and a shame, so the genuine reformer should realize that the cause he champions is especially jeopardized by the mock reformer who does what he can to make reform a laughingstock among decent men. — Theodore Roosevelt

If a liberal policy towards the late Rebels is adopted, the ultra Republicans are opposed to it; if the colored people are honored, the extremists of the other wing cry out against it. I suspect I am right in both cases. — Rutherford B. Hayes

I agree that it is not just the extremists who harbor bad thoughts or engage in bad acts, but they are usually the source of the polarization and try to keep education and communication of the main stream from moving forward. — Joichi Ito

I am a man who believes with all fervor and intensity in moderate progress. Too often men who believe in moderation believe in it only moderately and tepidly and leave fervor to the extremists of the two sides - the extremists of reaction and the extremists of progress. Washington, Lincoln ... are men who, to my mind, stand as the types of what wide, progressive leadership should be. — Theodore Roosevelt

Extremists on the left tend to be just as critical of pragmatism as extremists on the right. — Richard M. Nixon

The war being fought in Afghanistan and Iraq is bringing about a fundamental change to the environment that has given rise and power to the extremists who export terrorism. — Craig L. Thomas

Obviously the extremists want to provoke sectarian warfare, and I am struck by the fact that over a three-year period, leaders of the (Iraqi) communities have been quite resistant to this. The test is whether the political process continues. — Peter Rodman

However, the religious extremists, especially the pro-Taliban organizations, they mobilized and instigated the Islamists to come on the streets and put pressure on the government to stop any reform on the blasphemy law. — Shahbaz Bhatti

The extremists are afraid of books and pens, the power of education frightens them. they are afraid of women. — Malala Yousafzai

The extremists are talking too loudly, and everyone is convinced that only he is on the right side. It's not just Jews against Arabs. It's the Orthodox versus those who don't think they can keep all six hundred and thirteen commandments of the Bible. It's rich people versus poor people. At some point, something came over Israel so that everyone has his own ideas - and everyone else is an enemy. It's a dialogue among deaf people and it is getting more and more serious. — Reuven Rivlin

If enough people would come out the right wing, the extremists couldn't dominate. — Arlen Specter

There is in fact no good reason al-Ghazali and his ilk should have the last word in defining Islam. Muslims around the world cannot go on claiming that "true" Islam has somehow been "hijacked" by a group of extremists. Instead they must acknowledge that inducements to violence lie at the root of their own most sacred texts, and take responsibility for actively redefining their faith. — Ayaan Hirsi Ali

We are helping our Somali brothers get rid of these narrow-minded attackers. The Somali people do not support the extremists, they are on the side of our soldiers. — Yoweri Museveni

[I]n 1919, 1920 and 1921, the whole Israelite press stormed the Romanian state unleashing everywhere chaos and exhorting to violence against the regime, the form of government, the Church, the Romanian order, the national idea, patriotism. Now, as if by magic (in 1936), the same press, led exactly by the same people, has turned into a protector of the state order and its laws, and declares itself 'against violence', and we have become the 'enemies of the country', the 'right-wing extremists', 'in the pay and in the service of the enemy of Romanicity', and, before long, we will hear even this: that we are sponsored by the Jews. — Corneliu Zelea Codreanu

I don't think the Republicans would appreciate the comparison, but they're exactly like the Labor Party in England in the 1970s. They're letting their extremists take them straight down. The same thing is going to happen - they had to disappear for a while and when they reinvented themselves they did it with moderates, they did it with Tony Blair. — Evan Thomas

I suppose the Party machinery will carry everything before it, and, as heretofore, the Extremists on both sides, whether progressive or reactionary, will set the tune and collar the organization, and all we wretched, unorganized middle thinkers will either be destroyed between the contending forces, or compelled to serve in support of one disproportionate cause or the other. — Winston S. Churchill

The question is not if we will be extremists, but what kind of extremists we will be. The nation and the world are in dire need of creative extremists. — Martin Luther King Jr.

What is objectionable, what is dangerous about extremists is not that they are extreme, but that they are intolerant. The evil is not what they say about their cause, but what they say about their opponents. — Robert F. Kennedy

The appalling details of the campaign of intimidation - which include grave-robbing - show the depths to which the animal extremists are prepared to stoop. — Tony Blair

These so-called extremists in Pakistan should be brought into the mainstream; if you marginalize them, you radicalize them. — Imran Khan

There was a very convincing argument made that the extremists have won and the aggression is now supported by the majority, therefore fighting until surrender was the only alternative. — Joichi Ito

Our world is utterly saturated with fear. We fear being attacked by religious extremists, both foreign and domestic. We fear the loss of political rights, a loss of privacy, or a loss of freedom. We fear being injured, robbed or attacked, being judged by others, or neglected, or left unloved. — Brendan Myers

Uganda can greatly benefit from American evangelicals if they separate the Scott Lively extremists from the Rick Warren-type of moderate evangelicals. — Roger Ross Williams

Religious extremists want to show us that the only possibility is for us to kill each other, so September 11 is not only heinous murder, it is also global performance. It is also putting an idea into the world, an idea of destruction. — Eboo Patel

Since its first day as a nation, Israel has lived under a cloud of aggression from militant extremists and hostile neighboring governments. — John Boehner

I don't think it is so difficult to solve the problems between Cuba and the United States; it all depends on whether there is a dialogue, a discussion, or if the prejudices and hatred of people like the extremists and terrorists from the Cuban community, who try to impose their policies, prevail. — Fidel Castro

Christ gave up his life for you so that you could have a genuine zeal to do good works. Paul calls upon Christians to be good works zealots or good works extremists - to be absolutely committed in every way to doing good for others. — Tim Challies

We have lost a lot of ground to the extremists in the Middle East. — Najib Razak

McGovern is very sensitive about this sort of thing, and for excellent reason. In three of the last four big primaries (Ohio, Nebraska & California) he has spent an alarmingly big chunk of his campaign time denying that behind his calm and decent facade he is really a sort of Trojan Horse candidate - coming on in public as a bucolic Jeffersonian Democrat while secretly plotting to seize the reins of power and turn them over at midnight on Inauguration Day to a Red-bent hellbroth of radicals, Dopers, Traitors, Sex Fiends, Anarchists, Winos, and "extremists" of every description. — Hunter S. Thompson

Since I learned the truth in Mecca, my dearest friends have come to include all kinds
some Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Hindus, agnostics, and even atheists! I have friends who are called capitalists, Socialists, and Communists! Some of my friends are moderates, conservatives, extremists
some are even Uncle Toms! My friends today are black, brown, red, yellow, and white! — Malcolm X

I suppose there won't be any Mexican food in the whites-only homeland,' I said.
Hm, I'd never thought of that possibility' Jerry said. He paused. 'They wouldn't be allowed to vote but they could cook and clean for us. Afterall, we're not extremists. — Louis Theroux

The United States did not choose to fight Islamic extremists. These terrorists chose to fight our way of life. They chose to challenge our existence. — John Boehner

Only if you empower the liberals, if you empower the moderate socialists, if you empower all factions of society, only then will extremists be marginalised. — Mohamed ElBaradei

I am certainly not a blogger. Quite a large proportion of them are nuts and extremists - with the honourable exception of the culture secretary. — Kenneth Clarke

The greatest threat to U.S. and global security is no longer a nuclear exchange between nations, but nuclear terrorism by violent extremists and nuclear proliferation to an increasing number of states. — Barack Obama

The Nazi regime intended eventually to destroy Christianity in Germany, if it could, and substitute the old paganism of the early Germanic gods and the new paganism of the Nazi extremists. — William L. Shirer

At the moment, the extremists have significant financial popular and theological backing in the Middle East. And that is an enduring phenomenon. And it's one that is going to require a long, ideological war to win. — Chuck Todd

Everybody is afraid to touch the topic of religion, especially with the extreme muslims. It's such a touchy subject. You can attack any other religion and nothing bad will come about, but I think those that are extremists, the way they are taught or the way, as I'd like to say, "brain-washed." they're not of sound mind, They're of a different mind. — Charlie Benante

Let's not leave an educational vacuum to be filled by religious extremists who go to families who have no other option and offer meals, housing and some form of education. If we are going to combat extremism then we must educate those very same children. — Hillary Clinton

I do believe that nice religious people make the world safe for extremists by teaching us that faith is a virtue, that there's something good about holding beliefs without any substantiating evidence, that you believe because you believe. Once you buy into that, then the door is opened to extremists who defend their extremism by saying, 'Oh well, it's my faith, you can't touch it, you can't criticise my faith, I don't even need to defend it because faith is faith.' — Richard Dawkins

Every time the media brings up the tea party, it's painted as racist and extremists
but there's never a backlash, no outrage to those comparisons ... Working-class people are hurting
and it doesn't seem like anybody cares. When both sides are high-fiving it on the ninth hole when everybody else is without a job
it makes a whole lot of us angry. Something has to change. The policies have to change. — Hank Williams Jr.

Saudi Arabia is a frightened monarchy. It's beset by Sunni extremists from the Islamic State and Shiite extremists backed by Iran. — David Ignatius

I have a lot of reason to believe, as we saw in the 2012 election, most Americans don't agree with the extremists on any side of an issue, but there needs to continue to be an effort to find common ground, or even take it to higher ground on behalf of the future. — Hillary Clinton

these ideological cliques form in a government--or any other organization. Subordinates are always chosen for their agreement with the views of their superiors, and the extremists always get to the top and shove the moderates under or out. — H. Beam Piper

Tantra is for extremists, but balanced extremists. — Frederick Lenz

Extremists and populist movements are exploiting people's fear of those who are not like us. We can see the consequences in the form of terrorism and racially motivated violence. — Kjell Magne Bondevik