We have an interesting conundrum.

Islam is supposedly a religion of peace.

Jihadists are supposedly a heretical minority that “hijacked” Islam and doesn’t represent its mainstream.

Jihadists are almost without exception extremely informed about Islamic doctrine. Furthermore, they almost without exception seek guidance from the imams regarding what’s allowed and forbidden; essentially, they seek religious fatwa before their act.

Islamic community is always “persecuted” after a terrorist attack and they always plead innocence. However, after the attack, when the jihadists are identified, it turns out that none of their neighbors knew anything, that nobody in their mosque knew anything, and they are presented as an isolated incident that has no precedent in the community and could never be repeated. Nobody in the Islamic community reports any suspicious activity by the radicals and they complain how the media is portraying them negatively; all the while, the main stream media is bending over backwards to portray Islam in general in a positive light and to avoid making a straightforward connection between Islam and terrorism. Essentially, the only Islamic terrorists are not really Islamic, and they are the only ones; all other Muslims are completely innocent, and all the guilty ones are dead, and they weren’t really Muslims.

After a while, people forget about the terrorist attack, lull themselves into sleep by believing the story above, and things are calm… until the next attack. And again, Islam is innocent, all the Muslims are innocent, the terrorists aren’t really Muslims, and nobody suspected or reported anything.

But some of those innocent hijab-wearing Muslim women were cooking for the terrorists. Someone was cleaning up after them, every day, and saw the guns and bombs. Someone talked to them in the mosque every day. Someone was giving them religious advice and answering their questions.

Everybody knew everything. Everybody knows everything. They are all in on it.