Were there really terrorists here?

The Washington Post reports on what the neighbors thought of the Fort Dix plotters:

From the front porch of her two-story home on Mimosa Drive, Susan DeFrancesco looked out on the neighborhood she calls "a little United Nations." Pointing from one house to the next, she said: "They're Asian; that family's from Poland. They're from Canada. She's from India. "

Living among those varied families for the past seven years were the Dukas, a three-generational clan of ethnic Albanians. Their Muslim religious garb, repeated minor run-ins with the law, and a brood of up to 20 children, grandchildren and other relatives made them unusual, but hardly unwelcome.

"You don't want to single out a family because of where they're from or what they believe," DeFrancesco said.

After hearing about the indictments, other neighbors were less, well, tolerant: "Don't go over there and talk to them," two "young mothers" were reported as saying. "You don't know what they'll do."

A local mosque leader, Farhat Biviji, 54, worried about a backlash. As he told the Post: "My heart sank when we heard of these horrible men who claimed to be Muslims. They are testing us all. Testing our ability to retain that tolerance. I pray that they have not damaged the goodwill of our community."

At the Islamic Center in South Jersey where the men reportedly met and developed their plot, people were surprised by the news. But because most of their fellow worshippers there were Pakistanis and Arabs, this may have been because of the language barrier. As the Post reports:

"How are we supposed to know what they are thinking? The brothers came to the mosque for Friday prayers, but did not seem overly religious or interested in Muslim teachings," said a 41-year-old Tunisian butcher and regular worshiper at the mosque who requested anonymity.

"The oldest brother was a funny guy, a joker. But he was not North African or Pakistani, and the language barriers often force us to talk among our own ethnic groups. But they certainly did not seem like people who hated this country."

At least one neighbor, Mark Levine, 38, was also having a hard time squaring what the government was saying with what he knew of the men. As the Post reported:

"They were your everyday Muslims," he said. "The kids would be out front playing soccer. They seemed hardworking. I would have believed they were aliens before I'd think they were terrorists."

"Now some people on the block are feeling guilty we didn't pick up on something," he continued. "I don't want to worry what the people next door are doing behind closed doors. I don't want to think like that, but maybe now I have to."