Sir: As we enter the year 2010, one cannot help pondering over the harsh memories of the past year. A year that left hundreds killed and brutalised and innumerable homeless in never-ending blasts, eighty of them being suicide attacks, leave the nation wondering what the new year will bring.As citizen journalism grows rapidly, it is giving a voice to the middle class majority, which believes extremism is not the root cause but just a symptom.If young people — particularly young men — are intolerant, jobless, and have few opportunities for positive engagement, they represent a potential pool of recruits for ethnic, religious, political extremists seeking to mobilise for violence. To sum up, the root cause of extremism needs to be looked at to make this year less deadly.MIAN ETHSAMIslamabad