Extremism appears to be on the rise; Minnesota has a tool to help

The mosque shootings in New Zealand are a fresh reminder that extremism appears to be on the rise across the globe. And in our own backyard, The Washington Post this month detailed an uptick in FBI arrests related to domestic terrorism, particularly of right-wing extremists.

How do we tackle this growing problem? Kevin Lowry has some ideas.

The now-retired chief probation officer for the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota helped create the nation's first deradicalization program to ensure homegrown jihadists in the state won't pose a danger upon release from prison. Now he's written a guidebook of sorts to help other law enforcement tackle extremism in the United States — whether they're Muslim, white or other extremists.

"They [all] operate on a conflict ideology, which a lot of them are based on problem, solution, vision," Lowry told MPR News host Tom Crann.

"Jihadists feel that their religion or their people are under attack. White extremists feel the same, that employment is taken by immigrants and they're not getting a fair shake," he said. "Their solution, ultimately, is violence, and their vision is some sort of utopian caliphate among jihadists and, among white extremists, it's some sort of white-dominated state."

To hear more from this discussion, click play on the audio player above.