Are there “no-go” areas in Sweden, France, and other European countries
that are ruled by sharia law, not controlled by the state?
One side has to be wrong.
In January 2015 The New York Times denied that there are
“no-go-zones” — areas that are not under the control of the state and are
ruled according to sharia law — dominated by certain immigrant groups in some
urban areas in Western Europe. The American newspaper mentioned this author,
alongside writers such as Steven Emerson and Daniel Pipes, for spreading this alleged falsehood. The
article was published shortly after Islamic terrorists had massacred the
staff of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in Paris on January 7,
2015. Other established media outlets such as the magazine The Atlantic also dismissed claims of no-go-zones.
Regarding the subject of “no-go-zones,” this is largely a question of semantics. If
you say that there are some areas where even the police are afraid to go,
where the country’s normal, secular laws barely apply, then it is
indisputable that such areas now exist in several Western European countries.
France is one of the hardest hit: it has a large population of Arab and
African immigrants, including millions of Muslims.
I have been writing about the problems in Sweden and the rest of Europe
for many years. The problems are unfortunately all too real. Here are a few
facts:
Sweden surpassed ten million inhabitants in early 2017. The recent
population growth is almost entirely due to mass immigration. If present
demographic trends continue, in a few decades native Swedes could easily
become a minority in their own country. The economist Tino
Sanandaji suggests that this transformation could happen within the
coming generation.
In an essay published in February 2016, Stockholm police inspector Lars
Alvarsjö warned that the Swedish legal system is close to collapse. The
influx of asylum seekers and ethnic gangs has overwhelmed the country and its
understaffed police force. In many suburbs, criminal gangs have taken control
and determine the rules. The police, fire brigades and ambulance personnel in
these areas are routinely met with violent attacks.
Malmö,
Sweden’s third-largest city, houses over 300,000 people, as of 2017. Despite
its modest size, the town has a crime rate equal to that of vastly larger
cities. The local police are barely able to investigate murders. Less serious crimes often go unpunished. Malmö
probably has the highest percentage of Muslim immigrants of any city in
Scandinavia. The most Islamic city in Scandinavia also happens to be the most
criminal and the most violent.
In November 2016, Malmö’s chief prosecutor Ola Sjöstrand publicly admitted
that his office was approaching a total collapse in terms of criminal
investigations. “If people are hit by crimes which then aren’t
investigated, they will lose faith in the rule of law,” Sjöstrand told the
regional newspaper Sydsvenskan.
Gothenburg, Sweden’s second largest city, has been for several years one
of the most important recruitment centers in Europe for
jihadists seeking to join the terrorist group Islamic State in Iraq and Syria
(ISIS). A survey carried out in 2016 showed that about one in nine school
students aged 12-18 in certain Gothenburg suburbs openly expressed sympathy with militant Islamic groups.
Nordstan in Gothenburg is one of the largest shopping malls in Sweden,
located in the heart of the city. 3,250 crimes were reported to the police from Nordstan in 2016.
That number is from a single shopping mall in one year. Aggressive groups of
Muslim immigrants, especially young men from North Africa, Syria or
Afghanistan, partly dominate the mall. “I’ve had people in front of me that
look like they are 35, but who claim to be 15. I can’t prove they’re lying so
we have to release them,” Rikard Sörensen from the police said.
Stockholm suburbs such as Husby, Rinkeby and Tensta house large
concentrations of recent immigrants. These districts are riddled with crime,
violence and social problems. The Swedish police have repeatedly been
attacked by criminal gangs there, even with hand grenades.
What’s interesting is, there’s an actual debate out there whether or not
these places even exist, right? You go to CNN, the BBC, and you listen to
people discuss no-go areas in France, in Belgium, in Sweden, in Germany. And
there’s an actual debate whether this is real or the figment of the
conservative imagination. I can tell you for a fact they exist. And in Sweden
what that means is, and this is what the police tell me, they use the
words ‘no-go area.’ They said, in their words, ‘If we’re chasing a suspect,
and they cross into this no-go area, we simply stop pursuit.’ And if we want
to enter this area, we have to go in with an armed convoy, as if you’re going
into like the kill zone in Afghanistan.”
In 2014, the Swedish police themselves estimated that there were 55 areas
in which they are no longer able to uphold law and order. That number is increasing. The country also experiences shocking levels
of violence against ambulance personnel in some areas. Swedish ambulance personnel want gas masks and
bulletproof vests to protect their staff against the escalating attacks,
similar to equipment used by staff working in war zones.
In February 2017, the local police chief Erik Åkerlund in Botkyrka near
Stockholm denied that “no-go zones” exist in Sweden. This claim
does not sound very credible.
As Soeren Kern writes at Gatestone Institute:
“The problem of no-go zones is well documented, but multiculturalists and
their politically correct supporters vehemently deny that they exist. Some
are now engaged in a concerted campaign to discredit and even silence those
who draw attention to the issue.”
What does it take for the New York Times and other established
media to define an area as a no-go zone?
It is an indisputable fact that a number of areas exist in several Western
European countries where criminal ethnic gangs dominate the streets and where
even the police find it very difficult to walk in safety. The number and size
of these areas, fueled by mass immigration, seems to be growing.
If the New York Times and other mass media deny this fact, then
they are engaged in producing “fake news.” People who truthfully warn about
these problems thus risk being unfairly vilified and smeared for doing so.
Most dangerous, however, is our inability to deal forcefully with problems
that are undermining Western societies, because some Western media refuse to
admit that the problems exist.
There is much more information in the article. Inquiring minds may wish to
investigate further.
