T

he Eiffel Tower went dark on Saturday. Paris, one of the world'€™s most iconic places '€” city of love, home of the Mona Lisa, birthplace of modern democracy '€” was again awash with blood and terror.

The deadliest attacks in Europe since the 2004 Madrid bombings left more than 129 dead in coordinated strikes by religious extremists in five locations across the city late on Friday.

The bloodiest assault, where more than 80 perished, occurred at the Bataclan concert hall, a straight car-ride south down the Boulevard de Magenta from the fabled Montmartre district, which served for a century as an incubator of inspiration for greats like Toulouse-Lautrec, Van Gogh, Gauguin, Monet, Dalí and Picasso.

Like gruesome bookends of a horror story, Friday the 13th was a coda of revulsion in a year that began with the gruesome slayings at the satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo.

These were not simply isolated attacks; they are a sustained assault on the notion of liberal democracy and the roots of liberté, égalité, fraternité '€” tenets that even the Indonesian people embrace.

A wave of grief and compassion swept the young and old this weekend. For the next few days, perhaps weeks and even months, the world will be reeling in sadness and horror.

Yet for every young girl who takes out a crayon to paint a sorrowful message of '€œSave Paris'€ somewhere on the outskirts of Jakarta, there will be an ignorant commenter dredging up fury by saying '€œthis is what France gets for meddling in another country'€.

The inane may speak without conscience, but our failure to challenge distorted voices that rationalize the violence is even more reprehensible than the attacks themselves.

Victor Hugo, one of Paris'€™ most celebrated past residents, wrote in Les Misérables that '€œJoy is the reflex of terror'€.

In the aftermath of the Charlie Hebdo attacks in January, many here were tip-toeing around condemnation of the slaughter with footnotes that perhaps it was not wise for the publication to be so outrageous in its opinions.

So while supportive messages declaring '€œJe suis Charlie'€ abounded, a countermeme of '€œJe ne suis pas Charlie'€ was also noticeable from those distancing themselves from the publication'€™s editorial line.

Even former president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono at the time couched the slaying of 17 people as a consequence of a '€œclash of values and clash of perceptions'€ between Islam and the West.

But therein lies the problem.

Blasphemy and defamation are no justification for terrorism. Terrorism is perpetrated to induce the worst aspects of humanity.

Some of the most radical groups here on Sunday even started making causality arguments between one day of bombs in Paris and events in Palestine and Syria.

President Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo on Saturday rightly and vehemently condemned the brutality in Paris without condition.

'€œTerrorism cannot under any circumstances be tolerated,'€ he said.

The group known as the Islamic State (IS) has claimed responsibility for Friday'€™s attacks, which the group says were retaliation for French airstrikes on IS territory and insults directed at the Prophet Muhammad, thus linking Friday'€™s carnage to the attack on Charlie Hebdo.

But while this terrorist group '€” alongside religious thugs here '€” brandishes Islam in its moniker, they are as far removed from the religion as hatred is from our children.

Muslims here and everywhere should have no reason to tip-toe around the issue or feel ashamed of terrorist acts any time the word '€œIslam'€ crops up.

Believers and agnostics '€” whether they live under a religious constitution or notion of laïcité '€” are victims and frontline soldiers in this fight against intolerance, a caliphate dictatorship and the ideology of fear.

Yet how the world responds will now depend on how France reacts to convulsive transformations in the face of global extremism.

President François Hollande said that attacks were '€œan act of war that was committed by a terrorist army, a jihadist army'€.

He added that the attack was '€œprepared, organized and planned from abroad, with complicity from the inside'€.

Whether France continues to stand for a free society or regress by helping perpetuate the fear perpetrated by terrorists will be a yardstick for how other nations respond.

Security is a necessity, but an approach that reinforces freedom and protection of minorities is also a requisite. To do otherwise would inflame tensions and exacerbate a battle that began as one of good versus evil into one of blurred and biased emotions.

It will not be easy for the French, nor Europeans in general, as they face the trials of societal tensions in the aftermath of this attack.

President Jokowi earlier this year said Indonesia practiced religious tolerance and was using cultural approaches to eradicate terrorism in the country, rather than adopting a security approach.

This may certainly be a lesson learnt and easier said than done.

For today it is important for Indonesians to affirm that we refuse to be weak and cease to be tolerant of growing intolerance in this country, and for all Muslims to declare: '€œJe suis Musulman, Je suis Charlie, Je suis Parisien!'€