Life in the “no-go zone”: Roubaix, France (cc photo: Kathryn Burrington)
Fox News pundit Steve Emerson drew international ridicule for claiming Birmingham, England, was a “no-go zone” for non-Muslims (FAIR Blog, 1/12/15). But he was far from alone on Fox in advancing this xenophobic fantasy of urban areas lost to Western civilization.
Fox generally characterized these “no-go zones” as isolated, predominantly Muslim areas under Sharia law that are breeding grounds for terrorists. Critically, they claimed that police and other non-Muslims were barred entry from such neighborhoods.
As supposed proof of these “no-go zones,” Fox pointed to French government lists of officially designated Zones urbaines sensibles, or “sensitive urban zones.” In reality, these are not areas that the French have ceded to Islamists, but rather neighborhoods targeted for urban redevelopment and eligible for special tax incentives, similar to the US “enterprise zone” concept.
But reality didn’t hold back Fox host Sean Hannity (1/8/15), who while law enforcement was still pursuing the perpetrators of the Paris attack asked a correspondent this leading question:
Are the police also searching in these areas that we call the no-go zones, where non-Muslims are usually not allowed, not even police and fire departments, usually? Are those the areas that they’re searching right now?
Correspondent Amy Kellogg neither confirmed or denied Hannity’s dubious description of “no-go zones.”
The next day on Hannity (1/9/15), Jihad Watch director Robert Spencer, a leading proponent of Islamophobia, elaborated on these “no-go areas”: “Essentially, the police have no authority, the French state has no authority, and Islamic law prevails. These places are incubators!”
On Fox & Friends (1/10/15), journalist Nolan Peterson claimed he “witnessed young men wearing Osama Bin Laden T-shirts” in one of these zones. (He would later issue a partial apology, claiming he was only describing his 2005 trip to Paris.)
Washington Post columnist Charles Krauthammer (Special Report, 1/14/15) claimed that certain terrorist groups “have the small elements in the small no-go zones in Europe, especially in France. And that is the new territory of Islamism.” Although host Bret Baier informed Krauthammer that the French government rejected the term “no-go zone,” Krauthammer dismissively replied, “That’s what they say,” insisting these areas are “ruled by either gangsters or by Sharia and clerics” due to the lack of police.
Perhaps to add European credibility to its flimsy claims, Fox invited Nigel Farage (Hannity, 1/12/15), the leader of the far-right anti-immigrant UK Independence Party, to confirm, “We’ve got no-go zones in most of the big French cities.”
The UK’s Telegraph (1/15/15) dedicated a story to debunking Farage’s claims. Guillaume Delbar, the mayor of Roubaix–a “sensitive urban zone” with the largest Muslim population in France–called Farage’s claims “simply nonsense,” while an unnamed young resident retorted: “That is just bullshit! I can only laugh.”
“The new territory of Islamism”: L’Olympic Cafe, Goutte d’Or (cc photo: Gilles Klein)
The Local (1/15/15) interviewed residents of La Goutte d’Or, a sensitive urban zone within Paris, to test Fox News‘ claims. According to the report, every resident disagreed with Fox News‘ antagonistic characterizations, with many characterizing La Goutte d’Or is welcoming. “A Muslim in his twenties added that anyone calling neighborhoods in Paris ‘no-go zones’ were racist,” The Local reported.
But another resident delved deeper as to why Paris is segregated into sensitive urban zones:
I think this is because officials in Paris are trying to push the poorer population to the edges of the city and to the suburbs by tearing down old buildings and replacing them with newer, more expensive ones that those people can’t afford any longer.
So instead of being communities of terrorism, these “no-go zones” appear to be neighborhoods with typical urban struggles of poverty and gentrification.
Bloomberg Businessweek (1/14/15) also debunked Fox News‘ “no-go zone” alarmism. Notably, it quoted Middle East Forum president Daniel Pipes, who credited himself as the coiner of the “no-go zone” phrase in 2006. Pipes now says, based on his definition as “a place where the government has lost control and cannot enforce the rule of law,” that there are “no European countries with no-go zones.”
In 2013, Businessweek related, Pipes observed after a tour of immigrant and Muslim neighborhoods in Paris and five other European cities:
For a visiting American, these areas are very mild, even dull. We who know the Bronx and Detroit expect urban hell in Europe, too, but there things look fine…hardly beautiful, but buildings are intact, greenery abounds and order prevails…. Having this first-hand experience, I regret having called these areas no-go zones.
Clearly, Fox News didn’t get the memo.
When sharing this page to G+ all I get is an ugly Url as title.
Emerson has long been a notorious whackjob. See this for instance:
After the Oklahoma City Bombing, Emerson said the type of bomb suggested the work of a jihadi group. The attack had “a Middle Eastern trait” because it was carried out “with the intent to inflict as many casualties as possible,” he told CBS News in a live interview shortly after the attack.
“Oklahoma City, I can tell you, is probably considered one of the largest centers of Islamic radical activity outside the Middle East,” he said. Emerson’s contract with CBS wasn’t renewed when it later expired, FAIR reported a few years later.
Really. That’s what he said.
“No-Go Zones”?
NYC is filled with them. No public bathroom, and every walk-in pizza place toilet sports a sign saying “Toilet out of order” or “for customers only.”
In other words, “No Go” zones.
“We’ve got no-go zones in most of the big French cities.”
— Odd statement from something called the UK Independence Party.
Who’s “we”?
Oh, forget it, Farage is obviously a Faux expert.
On the other hand, if even Pipes is piping down ….
Really, this (No-Go Zones) are nothing more than Effing, Stupid, White (who think they are, but really are inferior) supremacists recycled trash from the old days of the Civil Rights non-sense that they used to spew then.
I fail to understand how these people can be such cowards, to point they are terrified of their own shadow. Is there something mentally deficient with them? I think they are seeing their own racists mentality in the mirror and mistake it for reality thinking all of America feels the same. At some point we need to stand up, pick up the trash (aka Fux Snooze Nitwork commentators) and toss out to the curb. Until we do that, we will have these utter morons coloring everything we do with dismal, twisted attitudes and will remain the laughing stock of the rest of the Civilized world.
They think that we have no respect from others because we aren’t bombing the hell out everyone but the reality is these very commentators – every last one – are the reason that nobody wants to show us any respect, and the main reason why America has the reputation it does. Too bad we more than likely see the F.S.N. Trolls all standing around bellowing the spewing points of their Troll Gods.
You are wrong. There are so many Muslim ghettos around Paris and other parts of France. France took huge money from the UN when they gave there former colonies citizens permant residentship in France. The no go zones are REAL and not limited to urban redevelopment. France has gotten a rude awakening with there problem there. I travel to France every year for the last 5 years and love it there. Europe radical problem is only getting started. The Muslim religion is not the problem, its the Radical’s praying on the weak is the problem. Let them run of to Syria and other places to fight and learn how to master warfare, then let them come home to hurt and kill the incident. Forget Fox news, they are only half correct, but there are not totally wrong.
@ jason C
I live in France and no those “no go zones” aren’t real, so stop lying.
Remember several years ago when the young Muslim teenage died when he ran from the police. Remember all the riots that happened after words. That area outside of paris is considered a Muslim Ghetto area. There are areas outside of nice that are know for heavy drugs and violence that the police just about for the most part stay away from. It reminds me of the old south Bronx back in the 70-80s but I would think its not as bad in France. This video that was reported on was areas all inside Paris proper. These problem areas are NOT in these zones but outside the Paris city limits. Reality is the French sadly made a mistake by taking the extra EU money by giving some many citizenship’s to there former colonies people. This is why they have the largest Muslim population in Western Europe.
Anything FUX says is there, ISN’T there… and anything they say ISN’t
there probably is; have I got that right?
Hard to be sure, they change their story so often…
jason C: There are so many Muslim ghettos around Paris and other parts of France.
____________________________________
Ghettos are not the same thing as a so-called (and fictional) No-Go Zone.
Not only Fox… For your interest : http://www.hindujagruti.org/news/18619.html
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/law-and-order/10581189/Alternative-policing-in-some-minority-communities.html
This shows there are issues and problems with a Islamic sub-culture in the UK, and that they are trying to deal with it.