
An investigation has uncovered no fewer than 1,000 no-go zones
spanning seven European countries. The research establishes a direct
correlation between mass immigration, Islamization, and the creation of
no-go zones governed by hardline Islamist doctrines.
“No-go zones are highly correlated to Islam,” the study titled No-Go Zones: Immigration, Islamisation, and the Rise of Parallel Societies
finds. It warns that such zones are the result of Muslim demographic
concentration, “rigid” Islamist ideologies, and an insular retreat from
civic norms.
“These zones are not merely spatial anomalies but spatial-material manifestations of socio-religious disintegration in contexts of high migration from Muslim-majority regions,” the study published by New Direction—Foundation for European Conservatism in March concludes.
It
finds that 63 percent of jihadi terrorists who attacked Europe between
2010 and 2025 had a “verified link” to a no-go zone and notes that these
areas, with high rates of youth unemployment, “offer fertile ground for
Salafist propaganda, which presents an alternative and valorizing
identity.”
Civil War On the Horizon
If the trend is
not reversed, the “risk of violent confrontations is real,” the research
predicts. It cites Prof David Betz, from the Department of War Studies,
King’s College London, warning: “Civil war thus emerges as a dual
threat: military and security-related on the one hand, civilizational
and cultural on the other.”
The research credits Daniel Pipes, founder of the Middle East Forum, with first popularizing the nomenclature of “no-go zones” in academic and public discourse.
In a blog compilation titled “The 751 No-Go Zones of France,” Pipes
wrote that the French government alone counted 751 “partial no‑go
zones,” since state representatives, especially the police, “can only
enter with massive power for temporary periods of time.”
The New
Direction study, however, laments scholarly reluctance to use the term.
Instead, it notes, academics prefer substituting “no-go zones” with
phrases like “parallel societies,” “ethnic enclaves,” or “zones of urban
marginality.”
The research focuses on seven EU countries where
no-go zones are most reported: France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Belgium,
Sweden, and the Netherlands. It cites findings from the Migration Research Institute,
Budapest, which estimates that there are now 900 to 1,000 areas across
Europe exhibiting the key characteristics of no-go zones.
Eastern Europe Spared the Threat of No-Go Zones
Using
11 indicators like homicide, sexual violence, riots, antisemitism,
attacks on police or firefighters, and state withdrawal, the New
Directions study classifies the areas into low-risk zone, high-risk
zone, confirmed no-go zone, severe no-go zone, and critical no-go zone.
The
indicators classify localities such as Saint-Denis/Aubervilliers and La
Castellane (Marseille) in France, Molenbeek in Belgium, and Malmö and
Rosengård in Sweden as “critical” no-go zones. Neukölln in Berlin, Raval
in Barcelona, Borgerhout in Antwerp, Aurora in Turin, and Angered in
Gothenburg are classified as “severe” no-go zones. Rome’s Termini
Station, within walking distance from the Vatican, is classified as a
“high-risk” zone.
Muslims are “markedly overrepresented” in no-go
zones with an average of 29%, the study finds. European countries “with
the highest national concentrations of Muslim populations also appear to
be those with the highest density of no-go zones.” But countries with
lower Muslim populations, like Hungary or the Czech Republic, exhibit
few to no comparable zones.
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Focus on Western Islam
Report Credits Middle East Forum Founder Daniel Pipes For ‘No-Go Zones’ Label