JANUARY 16 — It is a week that will be remembered for all the wrong reasons. In Paris at least seventeen people have been murdered in the name of violent extremism. The incident began with an attack on the offices of a satirical French magazine. It is an act that has brought about an outpouring of sympathy from the four corners of the globe, where we find echoes of “Je Suis Charlie” offered in anguished and defiant solidarity with the dead from the publication in question. Never mind that many still find the content of Charlie Hebdo offensive, crass, irresponsible, ignorant, and simply not funny, terms that the weekly would most likely flash at its detractors as badges of pride. No, nothing justifies wilfully taking the lives of innocents, no matter how objectionable their ideas or expressions may be.

Yet as mourners and world leaders alike gathered along the Place de la Republique for an unprecedented 1.5 million-strong rally against violent extremism, there are many around the world that continue to succumb to the sharp vicissitudes of its ungodly appetite. Scarcely two weeks into 2015, and violence related to extremism continues to run amok. A policeman was abducted and murdered by militants in Tunisia, an attack on a bus in Cameroon had left at least 15 dead, and suicide bombers had claimed a life in Turkey, two lives in Saudi Arabia, and 33 lives in Yemen.

But among all, Nigerians seems to have suffered the most in this respect. On January 2, 2015, 40 boys and young men were reported kidnapped by militants in the town of Malari. Between the January 3 to 7, militants have reportedly fired upon villagers, and are believed to have killed around 2,000 people. And on January 11, two suicide bombers walked into a crowded market in the town of Potiskum and detonated themselves, killing at least five people including themselves, and injuring 46 others.

Indeed, the suicide bombings at the market have my vote for the most heartless, inhumane and worrying turn of events in the long and sordid history of violent extremism. In fact, I am not so sure that it can be considered a suicide bombing, considering one of the attackers, unnerved after seeing the first explosion, clearly tried to flee from the scene, only to be detonated in the middle of her unfortunate and futile attempt. You see, the perpetrators of the attack had managed to either convince or coerce two young girls into strapping the explosives onto their bodies and carrying out the deed. Two young girls. How young? Witnesses described one of them to be as young as 10.

Ten? This hits all kinds of nerves with me. I am the father of a six-year-old boy. It was only yesterday that I was dressing him up in his uniform for his first day of school, only to have him wail for his mother during recess to cajole her into giving him hugs and kisses while other parents “oohed” and “ahhd” in resonant sympathy. And scarcely a day before, a girl half a world away who could have easily been his schoolmate in primary four, easily shared his obsession with Minecraft and easily laughed at his goofy sense of humour, was literally blown into pieces in service of the sick and deluded ambition of half-past-six militants?

The militants in question go by the nom de guerre Boko Haram. While they certainly indulge in a range of activities that more than qualify them as violent extremists, perhaps it is more accurate to describe them as violent insularists, as they are brutally belligerent towards anything they deem as corrupting foreign influences, which in their eyes is practically anything remotely foreign.

This is the same Boko Haram that kidnapped more than 200 girls from the village of Chibok last April and was the centre of the viral social media campaign #BringBackOurGirls. To this date, they have been responsible for well over five thousand deaths. Their increasing level of sophistication after 2011, lead experts to believe that they are receiving help and guidance from outside groups such as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (IS). Yes, the same IS that at least two Malaysians have died for as suicide bombers and at last count 51 have been arrested for related activities.

What are the unseen and unconsidered forces that have lead the militants of Boko Haram to employ increasingly repugnant and morbidly extreme tactics? Are they the same forces that have persuaded the sleeper cell in Paris to commit the three days of atrocities? Is there a way for those united in opposition to violent extremism to collectively devise actions and approaches that can alleviate and prevent such forces from putting our lives and our ways of living at risk?

The issues that belie the subject of violent extremism are complex and multi-layered, but it is something critical that must be addressed without delay. We must do something about it. While with the attacks in Paris we witnessed the murder of innocents, the use of children as suicide bombers by Boko Haram saw the death of innocence itself. Both are equally forceful and equally compelling reasons for us to have frank and honest discussions about what can, and must, be done to bring us back from the brink of sanity.

On March 11 to 12 this year, Global Movement of Moderates Foundation will be holding an international conference to gather experts from around the world to see what we can do about it. Unlike global warming, I believe there is something we can still do about it. I may even be right.

* Asrul Daniel Ahmed who is Director of Research and Publications at Global Movement of Moderates Foundation (GMM). GMM is a new approach in international relations and foreign policy, with the main goal of applying perspectives and frameworks of moderation to realise world peace and harmony.

** This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of Malay Mail Online.