When neighbors are on good terms with each other, knowing what is going on in the whole sub-division is easy. You should know that, having lived here, and you know what I am talking about.
I agree with the general point about neighbors knowing each other and hanging out and sharing drinks (not to snoop but just to be good neighbors), but that also depends on lifestyle and whether or not one gets along with their neighbors. At a broad level this makes sense, but I don't see how in the case of this particular couple it would have set off alarm bells.
Are you so sure that you're right and the Islamic scholars are wrong?
The essence of my posts and my calls for moderate Muslims, organizations and governments funding and promoting progressive Islamic Scholars and research into reinterpreting controversial interpretations of the Quran and Hadith is that the current interpretations and ideology promoted and defended by many of the 'traditional' Islamic Scholars is flawed and that these traditional Islamic Scholars need to be challenged and Muslims provided alternate interpretations of the Quran and Hadith.
The sermon you quoted, focusing on the promotion of intolerance within Muslim societies, is just one example of how traditional Islamic Scholars have distorted and manipulated Islam to further their political control and patriarchal and regressive world view.
If, as Munajjid points out, a Muslim truly believes that Islam is the only true religion, and that Muhammad is its prophet, why would he allow that which is false (and thus corrupt, cancerous, misleading, etc.) to exist alongside it? Such gestures of "tolerance" would be tantamount to a Muslim who "wants to equate between right and wrong,"...If you truly believe that there is only one religion that leads to paradise and averts damnation, is it not altruistic to share it with humanity, rather than hypocritically maintaining that all religions lead to God and truth? - link
Every religion purports to represent the 'one true faith' - the distortion by traditional Islamic Scholars here is in usurping Allah's power to judge, punish and reward in the hereafter as a tool to wield political influence and power in the material world.
@WebMaster I made a pledge to the forum that if the terrorists in California were Pakistani, or were of Pakistani descent I would change my flag. With regret they turned out to be Pakistan thus I am obliged to deliver on the pledge. Can you please change my Pak flag to UK. Thank you.
While changing your flags is certainly your choice, I disagree with the decision and the implication. You're holding Pakistan and all Pakistanis responsible for the acts of two lunatics when many would be reluctant to even hold their immediate families responsible. Farooq's brother appears to be (assuming the current media reports are correct) a decorated US Military veteran, his father an abusive alcoholic and his formative years entirely in the US. Malik appears to have spent her formative years in Saudi Arabia, with reports suggesting that her father too became a hard-line anti-Shia Salafist during his time there.
Until further details regarding their radicalization and motives emerge, holding Pakistan responsible is unfair to say the least. If anything, the fault here is with certain traditional interpretations of Islam and Islamic Scholars - a far more useful move on your part would be to support progressive Islamic movements and scholars, wherever possible, and call for reform and change in Islam from every possible platform.