'Tribalism to blame for extremism'

(MENAFN- Arab News) Political factors and tribalism are the main reasons behind intellectual extremism in saudi society said a study published by king fahd security college.

such factors surpass unemployment which was identified as the main culprit by social scientists who studied extremism trends over a period of three years.

the latest study says that 80 percent of saudis see political factors as the main reason behind extremism while around 76 percent of young saudi men say the kingdom has various obstacles that stand in the way of curbing such a phenomenon.

the study led by ghada al-tareef involved 62000 university students in riyadh and jeddah. it found that political factors that contributed to young saudis turning to extremism include a general lack of respect for muslims their bad image in western countries muslim resentment toward western hegemony and mistreatment of muslim groups in some western countries.

'tribal extremism and cultural paradoxes are some of the other reasons that lead to extremism and feed into a culture of hate" said al-tareef. 'extremist behavior among families can be highly toxic and contagious contaminating ideas of other family members."

around 70 percent of participants consider the presence of poor and random neighborhoods as breeding grounds for intellectual extremism while around 63 percent said men are attracted to extremist thinking because of intellectual and physical repression.

the study also said that several cultural factors create intellectual extremism in addition to such ideology spreading on social media sites.