Medieval unreason must be defeated

The terrible events unfolding in France show how very dangerous extremism can be — even for extremists.

One French politician said yesterday that the two brothers — 32-year-old Cherif Kouachi and 34-year-old Said Kouachi — suspected of Wednesday’s Charlie Hebdo murders told negotiators they “want to die as martyrs”.

Such a blood- sacrifice ambition, one that has disastrously shaped out history too, made it very difficult to see how any other conclusions other than tragic ones could have been reached.