French "no-go" zones in Paris

Fox News screen grab

Nolan Peterson, a journalist who specialises in conflict zones, in an interview with Fox News yesterday talked about "no-go" zones in Paris for non-muslims and tourists.

Nolan Peterson

He told the host Elisabeth Hasselbeck :

“There are 741 no-go zones throughout France, and they’re located in these ghettos (known as banlieues in France) that have formed around the major cities.” 

He described Paris as a combat zone which could be compared to Irak and Afghanistan. He also presented a map of Paris high-lighting zones where Al-Qaïda and ISIS are recruiting poor and alienated Muslims as jihadists in the streets and that nobody was doing anything about it.  

Steve Emerson, a terrorism expert also talked about these "no-go" zones in Paris. He said they are neighborhoods where neither tourists nor cops dare enter because Muslims have intimidated the government into largely ceding authority over to them. He said these zones are breeding grounds for radicalism.

Elisabeth Hasselbeck and Steve Emerson

After the terrorist attacks that took place last week in the French capital that left 17 people dead, the French are still tensed. They are upset with these unconfirmed reports and claim that Fox News is trying to create fear and that such false information could lead to a civil war.

The French media have annouced that the areas Fox News pointed out in Paris are not "no-go" zones but low-income areas known in French as "les Zones urbaines sensibles (ZUS)". These areas which have high-density Muslim populations were actually high-lighted by the French government as zones that need to be targeted for urban renewal initiatives. Although they are afflicted with issues such as crime, poverty andunemployment, they are not exempted from policing or French law, and are simply targeted for renewal initiatives.”

Surfing the Internet myself, some "unconfirmed reports" say that an estimated 5 million people live in these "zones sensibles", and that most of the residents are part of France's 10 percent Muslim population and that Islamic law actually supersedes the French legal system on civil matters such as property disputes, adultery and divorce.

Steve Emerson also claimed that Birmingham was a Muslim-only city where non-Muslims don’t go in :

"In Britain, it's not just no-go zones. There are actual cities like Birmingham that are totally Muslim where non-Muslims just simply don't go in."

The British prime minister David Cameron reacted saying :

"When I heard this, frankly I choked on my porridge. This guy is clearly a complete idiot."

He was forced to apologise for his blunder and said he would donate £500 to Birmingham Children's Hospital in a bid to atone for his errible, inexcusable error.

The hashtag #FoxNewsFacts is now trending on Twitter to mock the controversy.