Sorry for the long headline, but I want to discuss what may turn out to be an important insight I haven’t seen elsewhere.

At our breakfast the Saturday before Christmas at Andy’s Family Restaurant, besides seeing pictures of Angie’s new granddaughter, the second-generation Italian among us told how his father’s generation dealt with the Mafia.

They didn’t make any contacts they made with law enforcement know to Capone’s folks, of course.

They didn’t hold demonstrations to protest how their ethnicity was being maligned by the crooks running the underworld.

But, some probably took action to help law enforcement.

Undoubtedly not telling the Capone-controlled Chicago Police.

More likely the Eliot Ness Untouchables.

That brought me to a WIND Dennis Prager show last Tuesday with a Muslim who wrote an Op-Ed piece for the New York Times.

Prager was interested in the moderate approach this Muslim attorney–not a particularly religious one–took, but urged him to organize demonstrations to denounce the extremists.

I think that is never going to happen and now realize why.

It’s the same reason honest Italians in the 1920’s and 1930’s didn’t let Mafia members know they didn’t appreciate it what they were doing.

They may have told Mafia relatives to leave their home when asked to do something they was dishonest  “and never darken my door again” (an actual occurrence), but they certainly didn’t make themselves a target by openly criticizing the dons or their thugs.

Today, Muslims don’t want to die or see their relatives killed by sticking their heads up anymore than Italians of a generation ago did.

But that doesn’t mean Muslims who disapprove of the way ISIS and similar terrorists are tarnishing their religion’s reputation aren’t telling those fighting to keep Americans safe when they see something that endangers our society.

That some people did not do so in San Bernardino is not evidence that Muslims elsewhere are not.

Of course, I have no evidence they are.

But we do know that such radical Islamist attacks are relatively few.  The credible threat against New York City supposed to occur on Christmas Day did not, for instance.

I think that law abiding Muslims just wanting to assimilate into American society like Italians did when they first got here may be the reason.

Did a NYC Muslim tell the FBI’s Anti-Terrorism Unit?

Before Christmas, I heard on National Public Radio that the Federal government has a grant program to encourage local efforts of cooperation.

There might  be a big story here for someone with good contacts in the Muslim community.