Why would one of the most peaceful coexisting countries in the world feel the need to be on high alert because of Islamic extremists?  
   Why do  home grown  terrorists  thrive in a country well known for peace?  

"Out of Belgium’s Muslim population of about 640.000 individuals, there is roughly one per 1260 who has been involved in Jihad in Syria and Iraq"

   I suspect Bush should be blamed for Belgium's  most recent home grown Islamic terrorists, because he attended a NATO meeting in Belgium, June 2001.  
   

   
"The family homes of the suspected mastermind of the Paris attacks and one of the suicide bombers stand only a few blocks apart in the Belgian capital's Molenbeek neighborhood. After a string of attacks in recent years linked to its grimy streets in central Brussels, a key question arises: Why Belgium?

The tiny nation renowned for beer, chocolates and the comic book hero Tintin is now suddenly infamous for Islamic extremism — and the easy availability of illegal weapons.

Belgium has a central location in Europe; few border controls; a common language with prime jihadist target France; and a political divide between French and Dutch speakers that has long created bureaucratic disarray in justice and security.

From the prime minister down, there is widespread acknowledgment of a complicated and disjointed national structure that hampers the fight against extremism. "We have to do more and we have to do better," Prime Minister Charles Michel told legislators on Thursday, as he announced a slew of fresh measures to fight Islamic extremism.

For years, there have been calls for more funds to boost the ranks of judges and police, but progress has been slow as rival political camps bickered and austerity measures set in. Meanwhile, the splintering of municipal authority in Brussels and judicial authority nationwide means there's little sense of who's in charge of what in security matters.

Add to that a system in which policemen are often blocked from crossing borders — lacking jurisdiction to work in neighboring countries — while criminals can take advantage of Europe's open border policy, and it becomes clear why Belgium is attractive for terrorists.

"They do shop around for locations where it's easier to be unnoticed, or that your opponents will lose your trail," said Edwin Bakker, director of the Centre for Terrorism and Counterterrorism at Leiden University.

Abdelhamid Abaaoud, a Belgian who was the presumed organizer of the attacks, was killed in a raid Wednesday outside of Paris. Belgium and France are still on a manhunt for Frenchman Salah Abdeslam, a longtime Brussels resident. Both men grew up in the hardscrabble Molenbeek district, and their family homes stand within a short walk of its main police station. Abdeslam's brother, Brahim, blew himself up in a suicide attack, while another Brussels resident, Bilal Hafdi, also died in a suicide bombing.

Perched over Brussels stands the massive Palace of Justice, once a shining monument to democratic values, now cloaked for decades in scaffolding so decrepit it has come to symbolize Belgium's neglect for law and order. From there, one can look out onto the Midi, a grimy neighborhood that has become a treasure trove for any criminal looking for illegal arms.

"It is relatively easy to get your hands on heavy arms in Brussels," said Brice De Ruyver, a professor of criminology at Ghent University, who was security adviser to the prime minister from 2000 to 2008. "That applies to terror and serious crime. That is because the illegal arms trade has been neglected far too long. ... And once you have a reputation, it is tough to get rid of it."

 
Often municipalities were socialist or liberal fiefdoms with little interest in being swallowed up by a centralized Brussels administration. The number of police zones has been reduced from 19, but the current six is still considered an anachronism given the need to unify forces in combating extremism.

"Talent and manpower are badly spread out over the zone," said De Ruyver. "It is not where we need it most, namely in Molenbeek."

Extremist ideology has also been allowed to thrive due to police neglect. For years, the leader of Islamic radical group Sharia4Belgium directed one of Europe's more potent recruitment machines for fighters in Syria. Yet it was only this year that he was sentenced to 12 years in prison as the leader of what a court determined was a terror group. "Sharia4Belgium has been able to act with impunity for too long," said De Ruyver."

 
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/paris-attacks-rooted-in-brussels-bring-question-why-belgium/ar-BBngYVi?li=BBnb7Kz