The Dutch media are reporting that the terrorists responsible for the attacks in Casablanca may have had help from the Netherlands and Belgium. These reports are based on anonymous sources in the Moroccan justice system, so a healthy dose of skepticism is recommended. If true, it must be a pretty depressing development. It would mean that the Moroccan expats living in the Netherlands have become a destructive influence on not just the Netherlands, but on their own home country as well.

Morocco is, as Arab countries go, a fairly easygoing and tolerant place. One of the attacks on Saturday was on the Jewish quarter of Casablanca. It's one of the few Arab countries to have one, and although many Jews have left for Israel, the community still exists and can function. It is in fact, the largest Jewish community in any Arab country. There are tours for tourists, and even kosher tours. Although I tried to find more information on this on the web, there wasn't much about the actual daily life in the Mellah, the Jewish quarter of Casablanca is known. But here's a disquieting thought: it might now be safer for a Jew to walk the streets of Casablanca than go into Amsterdam-West with its Moroccan population. (Well, that might have been true until the bombs went off; fortunately, we haven't had any of those here.)

The radicalization is in no small part the work and influence of Saudi money. There are schools and mosques funded by the Saudis, and apparently they've left their mark, even to the extent that the expats are now willing to murder their own compatriots at home for not adhering to the medieval savagery of Islamofacsism. Meanwhile, recruiting for the jihad continues in the Netherlands.

On that note, a Dutch judge today released four men from custody, who were being tried on charges of recruiting youngsters to the anti-western Jihad. Several others are still on trial, potentially face up to two years in jail. That is, if the public prosecutor's demands for a three-year sentence are granted; this would put them back out on the street in two years. It's probably going to be less. A previous trial last year collapsed completely.

The only silver lining in all of this might be that the Moroccan authorities will become more active in their fight against Islamofascist terror. Morocco would be an obvious candidate for progress in the transformation of the Arab world that is necessary if the region is to emerge from its self-inflicted backwardness. But a stronger response in the Netherlands wouldn't do any harm either.