It’s all over the RW chattersphere this week, for instance here – a purported 750+ enclaves of unassimilated Muslim immigrants where Sharia law rules and French law does not and it’s not safe for an infidel to enter.
Posting this in GD rather than GQ because the definition of “no-go area” is itself bound to spark debate. But, as the term is usually used, it seems to arise in situations much, much more serious than the presence of immigrant enclaves or crime-ridden ghettos.
Do you have any sources better than Fox & Wikipedia? I use the latter when I can check the references–but avoid it on current hot-button topics.
No. My google-fu is not strong today. 
This is probably based on the 751 sensitive urban zones as defined by the central ministry of city development.
It is basically a euphemism for poor districts. Nothing too bad by American standards. It also says nothing about immigrants, or muslims, let alone Sharia law.
He seems to have taken the 750 odd Zone Urbaine Sensible ( Zone urbaine sensible — Wikipédia Sensitive urban zone - Wikipedia)) which are economically and socially disadvantaged regions as riddled with muslim nilhilists.
Big cities have bad neighborhoods. Those neighborhoods are quite often disproportionately populated by minority groups. Big whoop.
Is the debate whether or not they exist?
Yes. And apparently it’s already settled.
See : Birmingham.
yes
Voila, the less and less the american right impresses me with is hate, it is like the version of the Front national under le Pen le père not even Marine.
Can someone take a look at the claim that Sweden has 55 no-go zones? It seems like bunk, but I haven’t found anyone refuting it.
I was wondering where my mother was getting this from. She apparently believed not only that there were “no-go zones” ruled by Sharia law, but that some of them were within the city of Paris itself. She was extremely worried about my wife and I traveling there last month.
Spoiler alert: we made it back. Heads still attached.
They aren’t particularly different from say certain parts of South-Central Los Angeles or Detroit excepting the culture of the inhabitants. There probably is a higher than average chance of getting beaten up in this area but it’ll be for your wallet not because you are an infidel.
The below assumes that Fox is pushing a garbled interpretation of the list of Zones Sensibles mentioned upthread. Maybe they got their info from somewhere else, but it sounds like complete bullshit to me.
I lived in the 10th Arrondissement of Paris from 1989-97 (an area mentioned on the list, and currently go to the city (really mainly to a suburb near CDG) more or less quarterly on business.
I’m a railroad fan and amateur photographer specializing in urban landscapes, and have spent huge amounts of time traveling though the city and its suburbs (including numerous neighborhoods that are on the list, some of which were locally notorious for car-burnings and smashing up bus shelters), often with cameras in hand. Personally, I never felt particularly threatened. Hell, the location where I worked for most of the time I lived there was in Le Blanc Mesnil, which was a focal point of some of the civil disturbances of a few years back.
With that said, most of my travels in the 'burbs were during daylight hours, and as I mentioned in a related thread, there were areas I’d rather not pass through on foot late at night, but that had everything to do with gang and mugging activity than scary muslims accosting non-muslims.
As for any claims that Sharia Law has supplanted French law in these locations, IMO that’s preposterous. If you screw up, it’s the National Police who come to cart you off to the pokey, and I have not noticed any particular hesitation by them to do so.
It’s true, but it’s not because of Muslims, it’s because of moose.
Mynd you, moose bites Kan be pretti nasti . . .
But were they Mooselim?
No, they were Squirrelim, a closely associated sect.
There are certainly not any cities or parts of cities in Western Europe where Sharia law is the law. However, there are areas populated by Muslim immigrants where crime is extremely high and a breakdown in law and social order seems to be occurring. Try reading about Rotherham:
The part about French law not applying and sharia law or courts and sharia law enforced by separate police is total gobblygook.
However it could be true in a way, assuming these are ghettos populated mostly by muslim immigrants, that people have been harassed for flaunting customs. And that police treat the area differently and are loathe to enter. And it can seem like a surreal separate country within the country.
But that is true of ghettos populated mostly by one ethnic or religious group or immigrants in ANY country on earth, they follow a pretty consistent pattern. There is nothing special about muslims in this instance.