PERCEPTION ON CLERICS’ ROLE IN RAISING RELIGIOUS EXTREMISM

Extremism is actions considered to be far outside the mainstream attitudes of people which violate common moral standards. Extremism can take many forms, including political, ethnic and religious. Throughout history people have practiced violence in the name of religion. To find out the part played by clerics in promoting religious extremism through information communication technology, data was collected from a sample of 50 respondents selected by convenient sampling using a semi-structured questionnaire. The locale was Quaid-e-Azam University, Islamabad. The research was conducted over a period of one month. The findings of the study revealed that clerics provoking sectarianism and extremism are directly associated. Religious extremism supported by clerics was also significantly associated with obstacles being created in the way of women’s education. Thus over all, the religious clerics have been found to be the major root cause of terrorism.