As we know, there are two types of religious extremism; going beyond what the religion mandates, and falling short of the minimum of what the religion mandates. The former type is quite rare in this Ummah, and the latter is more prevalent. The former is not as dangerous, in my opinion, as the latter, though both are destructive, and must be avoided.
The West, I believe, is intent upon promoting the latter form of extremism among the Ummah, the extremism of falling short of what the religion requires, and it is using the former type of extremism specifically to pressure us into adopting the latter form. They keep the spotlight on groups like Da’esh and al-Qaeda, and grossly exaggerate the presence of their type of extremism among the Muslims beyond all proportion in a deliberately manipulative attempt to force us into the other extreme, just so we can free ourselves from being accused of being involved in, or supporting, terrorism.
The “acceptable” Muslim, for them, is one who falls short of what the religion requires. They want us to be that type of extremists. So, they blackmail us with Da’esh (for example), to coerce us into going as far as possible to disassociate ourselves from them, until we ultimately find ourselves compromising on fundamentals of the Deen