Gunshots. Knifings. Cars being set aflame. All in broad daylight, all on the streets of Molenbeek.

Molenbeek, Belgium, you may recall, was the Brussels neighborhood that was home to almost half of the jihadists responsible for the 2015 Paris attacks and several subsequent terror attacks in Belgium. The bomber of a train at Brussels Central Station in 2017, for instance, lived in Molenbeek. Mehdi Nemmouche, who shot and killed four people at Brussels' Jewish Museum in 2014, had previously lived in Molenbeek. The mastermind of the Paris killings, Abdelhamid Abboud, grew up and still lived in Molenbeek.

The largely Muslim community of Molenbeek (pronounced MOLE-en-bake) is not just known for raising young Islamist radicals and jihadists; it has also long served as a center for illegal drug trade, with much of the drug income helping to finance Islamist militant groups. Indeed, one main meeting place for the Paris attackers was a Molenbeek café owned by Salah Abdeslam, the only surviving member of the group, and his brother, who died in the attacks.