How Big A Threat Is Extremism In Southeast Asia?

A recent string of violent episodes in Southeast Asian countries sheds some light on the challenges facing this region as it grapples with extremism.

In Indonesia last month, two suicide bombers blew themselves up at a Jakarta bus station. The attack was linked to an ISIS-affiliated group.

In Thailand, a rash of attacks linked to Islamist insurgent groups took place throughout April and into May in the restive, Muslim-dominated south — including a car bomb attack outside a shopping mall that wounded more than 50 people.

And in the Philippines, ISIS-linked militants recently took over and occupied Marawi, a city in the country's Muslim-majority island of Mindanao. President Rodrigo Duterte declared martial law onfor almost three weeks. The death toll has topped 150, according to the military.