Extremists are every where. They are in developed countries too. Some are rooted in religious beliefs and some are political and others on races. We all know how racists Europeans were.
The Ku Klux Klan of USA were notorious for their violent racist behaviour. Political extremism, we don't make a big issues of.
We all know Belgium was the first country to put a ban on wearing "Burqa". Many others tried to follow the same suit. And after that France also taken the plunge and joined Belgium. One can disregard this by saying that it is because of the secularist nature of those countries. But they are also denying a human being's rights to wear according to his/her beliefs. If you need to see the modern face of European extremism please visit World Security network.
In countries like India, Pakistan, Afghanistan this severance is mainly created by religious beliefs, since religion plays a vital role in our day to day life. India also have our extremist groups. On Nov 20, 2008 The Times reported, extremist Hindu groups offered money, food and alcohol to mobs to kill Christians and destroy their homes, in the eastern state of Orissa . The violence was triggered in August by the murder of Swami Lakshmanananda Saraswati, a senior figure in the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), a hard-line Hindu group, who had campaigned against the alleged forced conversions of poor Hindus by foreign-backed Christian missionaries even after Maoists took the responsibility.
Being an extremist or pacifist is entirely upon individuals. There are a lot of deciding factors like one's character, feeling/emotion etc.. Extremists usually follow the violent path. It is not at all in the best interest of a nation that any extremist would rule or for that matter occupy any powerful position in a country.
