海角大神

A ripple of laughter spreads across the floor. The joke? A personal anecdote from Frank Meeink, a former fascist skinhead and founder of the antiviolence group Harmony Through Hockey, who says his first thought when he sees a handbag is to steal it.

Meeink doesn鈥檛 steal handbags these days, but he is adamant that people need to work to be better.

The rest of the panel agrees with him, an unlikely bunch consisting of retired Pakistani Maj. Tahir Wadood Malik, Rudi Corpuz, a former gang member in Los Angeles, Nigerian Imam Muhammad Sani Isa, who turned his back on Islamism, and Abu Muntasir, founder of a British-based Islamic charity that 鈥渟eeks to promote an organic, homegrown, indigenous following of Islam.鈥�

It鈥檚 an unlikely-sounding event: the Summit Against Violent Extremism (SAVE), held in Dublin, Ireland, from June 26 to 29 and organized by Google Ideas, a new 鈥渢hink-do tank鈥� founded by the Californian tech giant.

The plan? To provide three days of dialogue and debate about 鈥渧iolent extremism,鈥� from street gangs to right-wing militants to violent nationalists to religious extremists.

The audience of around 220 invited delegates, including NGO workers, victims of attacks, and 鈥渇ormers鈥� 鈥� the term used to describe one-time extremists who have turned their back on violence 鈥� appears enraptured, breaking into spontaneous applause when Rudi Corpuz says young men need to be taught to respect women, and when it is suggested that NGOs and antiviolence workers need more money.

Speaking to noted former Islamist Ed Hussain in the corridor outside the conference room, I ask what was conference鈥檚 objective.

鈥淭he objective was to give people permission to speak about violent extremism,鈥� he says.

In the session the term 鈥渞adicalism鈥� kept cropping up. Wasn鈥檛 there once a positive meaning to radicalism? Has it come to mean just violent extremism? Hussain says we鈥檙e talking at cross-purposes: 鈥淩adicalism that leads to, or provides the mood music for, violent extremism is the problem. The radicalism that operates within a political framework isn鈥檛 a problem.鈥�

SAVE is the first project organized by Google Ideas, this time in conjunction with the Council on Foreign Relations. The questions are obvious: Will Google save the world? Who asked it to?

Google Ideas director Jared Cohen, who formerly worked for the State Department, says the idea is to not beat around the bush, instead tackling big issues head on.

鈥淕oogle鈥檚 business operation and strategic goal is to look at the world鈥檚 most complex and intractable problems. Technology is a part of every solution,鈥� he said.

The summit certainly can鈥檛 be accused of having low horizons. On Tuesday, former Colombian President 脕lvaro Uribe took to the stage with former FARC guerrillas.

But questions remain: can conflicts such as Colombia鈥檚 be solved even by talking in good faith? Are conflicts really the result of misunderstandings or are actual political disputes the issue?

At a time when the battle for control of the Internet is heating up, an intervention by Google is likely to rouse some suspicion, especially in light of the Internet being used by extremists to disseminate information.

According to Cohen, the real issue is the need to do something.

鈥淓very challenge we pick will not necessarily be obvious 鈥� social justice, or 鈥榡udicial inclusion鈥� as we call it, fragile states. I want Google Ideas to be defined by what it does, focused on doing stuff,鈥� he said.

Cohen recognizes that he has set himself an enormous task, but says he intends to keep trying: 鈥淭here is no silver-bullet answer ... a solution for one conflict may not work for another [but] we have to try. It鈥檚 going to take a lot of approaches.鈥�