ASIO is changing some of the language it uses to describe terrorism. 

In his Annual Threat Assessment this week, ASIO director-general of security Mike Burgess declared the agency will no longer refer to “far-right”,”far-left” or “Islamic” extremism.

Instead, it will now use the umbrella terms of “religiously motivated violent extremism” and “ideologically motivated violent extremism” to describe the drivers of those seeking to do harm.

“We don't investigate people because of their religious views — it's violence that is relevant to our powers — but that's not always clear when we use the term ‘Islamic extremism’,” Mr Burgess said.

“Understandably, some Muslim groups — and others — see this term as damaging and misrepresentative of Islam, and consider that it stigmatises them by encouraging stereotyping and stoking division.

“Our language needs to evolve to match the evolving threat environment.”

He said that describing political extremism in terms of “left” or “right” does not help anymore. 

“We are seeing a growing number of individuals and groups that don't fit on the left-right spectrum at all,” he said.

“Instead, they're motivated by a fear of societal collapse or a specific social or economic grievance or conspiracy.

“For example, the violent misogynists who adhere to the involuntary celibate or 'incel' ideology fit into this category.”

The director-general said ASIO needs to use language that can accommodate groups that fall outside “traditional” categories.