In this Hannity interview on Fox News on 9 January, 2015, American author Robert Spencer said that:
So in France they have set up - the French government lists on a public web-site -751 no-go areas, where essentially the police have no authority, the French state has no authority and Islamic law prevails
Are there such regions listed by the French government?
I had a hard time finding official data regarding this issue.
TL;DR: Those regions are poor areas considered as priority for public help by the French government to reduce inequalities. It has nothing to do with Islamic law or police patrols.
I'm a French citizen.
So what are the ZUS (Zone Urbaine Sensible)?
They are sensitive urban areas where the French government wants the local politics to put in effort. Those are poor neighborhoods and they are classified as ZUS, to encourage companies to settle into those areas - e.g. by offering tax breaks.
The ZUS areas were created by the law Loi no 95-115 du 4 février 1995.
Article 2:
Les zones urbaines sensibles sont caractérisées par la présence de grands ensembles ou de quartiers d'habitat dégradé et par un déséquilibre accentué entre l'habitat et l'emploi.
Roughly translated in English:
The ZUS (Sensitive Urban Area) are characterized by the presence of large housing estates or deteriorated residential areas and an accentuated imbalance between housing and employment
So, in the official texts, these zones have nothing to do with Islam or police.
There is an official French organization that observes the ZUS: ONZUS (National Observatory for ZUS areas).
Regular reports are provided on different subjects concerning ZUS; for instance, here (French text).
I found on the ONZUS site a report on life in the ZUS: Portrait statistique des zones urbaines sensibles (ZUS statistical portraits).
Here is my summary list of key topics that are discussed in this report
- Une ségrégation touchant d’abord les immigrés d’Afrique
- Une mobilité résidentielle importante
- Un parc de logements sociaux ancien
- Une surreprésentation des familles nombreuses et monoparentales
- Un taux de chômage deux fois plus important en ZUS
- Une population plus jeune et des revenus très modestes
- Persistance et reproduction des inégalités scolaires
English translation:
I think this is a good summary of life in the ZUS. Note that there is no "Islamic law" mentioned. It's not something important or characteristic of the ZUS.
Of course, someone could argue this is a political view and maybe someone with other political views would create another report. But I think these reports are made by honest researchers.
There are a lot of classified areas like these in France. For instance:
ZRR: "Zone de revitalisation rurale" (rural revitalizing areas) for poor agricultural areas in the country. (No islamic law there also.)
ZEP: "Zone d'éducation prioritaire" (priority education area) for schools that are in poor neighborhoods and may need extra money. (Yes, they are often located inside ZUS)
For reference, here is a list of ZUS from the French government.
One example of a ZRU (a sub-category of ZUS) from that list is La Reynerie/Bellefontaine.
Haute Garonne (31) Toulouse La Reynerie, Bellefontaine. ZRU
It's a poor neighborhood with a lot of immigrants, a majority of them from North-Africa.
On the map of this area from the French Government, you can see the Université (University), and Col Ec. (junior high school) and Ec. (school) which are in France the symbol of the french republic laws and the french state.
On the Google Map of the area, you can see Témoins de Jéhovah: Jehovah witness building, which is evidence that Islamic law does not apply in the area.
I looked down the list
Atlas des Zones urbaines sensibles (Zus)
A lot of those places you could walk around if you wanted to. Fire crews would probably need to be accompanied by the police in some of them if they were to attend a fire. In a number, such as the quartiers nord of Marseille only reinforced police units would be safe entering but they are not total no go areas.
Here is a TV documentary (in French) about policing in the quartiers nord.
So you can see there is an active but ad-hoc police presence.
In this article, "A Marseille, en patrouille avec les renforts de Manuel Valls", you can read that the French state wants to "reestablish French republic order" in the quartiers nord; implying that there is an issue with the writ of the French state in some sectors. And l'Express talks of police free zones with the new right wing Mayor of the 7th district saying that Marseille city hall refuses foot patrols in the senstive areas.
-- edited May 2015
I found this passage written by a civil servant6 recounting his time working for Nicolas Sarkozy. The quote is from Au Coeur du Volcan if you want to go and read it.5 Here a public servant clearly states that parts of Seine St Denis are a No Go Zone for the authorities. Now that's not the 751 Zep mentioned by the Americans but one can imagine that there are other Seine St Denis in France. Given the date it should be possible to identify the prefect, it could be Claude Baland or Nacer Meddah or more likely Christian Lambert.
It was the bi-weekly meeting of the security chiefs. Sarkozy paced the room, frowning, you could feel the storm approaching. "Where are we with drug dealers in St Denis", he asked the prefect. "We need to take back control of the apartment blocks, one by one, make it impossible for the dealers to operate. A guy driving round in a new BMW 7 series, well the tax authorities should be asking where the money is coming from. I'm controlled all the time by the IRS, they say its for my protection." "Yeah, you must be one of the most protected people in the country", chuckled the interior minister.
The prefect hemmed and hawed "it's not easy, the place is full of illegals, squats, slums and shanty towns everywhere, its the third world, it is almost impossible to operate down there, it is a no go zone for the authorities, totally chaotic. When we do arrest an illegal the courts release them". Another minister interjected "it is impossible to send anyone back, we know where they come from but we can't get visas from their embassies, they don't want them, without a visa we can't put them on a plane."
-- Note (see Chris' comment below). This comment makes no claims about religious affiliations, it is just a claim made about no go zones on France to illustrate that even the French authorities make such claims at times.
-- edited November 2016
The term "no go zone" or "une zone de non-droit"7 is being used more frequently in France now following the Bataclan and Nice attacks and in particular after the attack at the Crossroads of Viry-Châtillon in the suburbs of Paris. The Viry-Châtillon attack has left a policeman in a very serious condition after a patrol had their cars firebombed. The point of contention is a crossroads that is under the control of gangs who charge motorists a "toll" to pass through. Apparently the gangs have controlled the crossroads for 3 years without the police being able to reestablish order. It is effectively a no-go zone for normal policing and people. The attack has led to demonstrations by the police throughout France, they claim that the justice system doesn't take gang crime seriously. Even French President Hollande has joined the debate accusing judges of "cowardice" and "hiding" by "playing the virtuous"; although he later backed down8.
-- edited November 2018 --
The French government, having long denied there was a problem of no-go zones in France has now made la Reconquête Républicaine official government policy9. In his resignation speech former interior minister Gerard Collomb warned that in certain areas of France
"the situation is very bad, yes, today, it is really the law of the jungle, traffikers and radical islamists have replaced the French republic"11
More seriously he foresees France slipping into civil war, this is what he told a journalist recently:
The situation in France "is very worrying, what I read each morning in notes from the police reflects a very pessimistic situation. The relationship between people is very tough, no one wants to live together."
Journalist "the new law on immigration only tackles illegal immigration, there are more than 200,000 legal migrants a year coming to France"
"Yes it is true, we are going step by step but that is a problem, we don't need any more immigration in France. The communities are confronting each other more and more and it is getting very violent, there is a risk of partition, I don't want to worry people but there is little time left, it is hard to say but within five years we'll be beyond the point of no return, afterwards...."10
Here's a very straightforward reference: The French penal law. Specifically, Article 113-2 makes this law applicable to the full territory of the French republic. And of course it does not employ that thieves get their hands cut off etc. (cf. Article 131). As a consequence the French state must act against any attempts to install islamic law.
It has been stated as false by Snopes for United States, France, and Britain. Steven Emerson, who spread such a rumour about Birmingham, have apologized for it.BBC
The French embassy stated that
"Of course it is not true to say that there are no-go areas in France. To give you an idea of how wide of the mark those comments are, we could compare them to those by the American journalist who recently said that non-Muslims simply did not go any longer to Birmingham: in both cases those statements are obviously totally untrue."(The Guardian)
Central Toulouse Bellefontaine one of the alleged no-go areas in France.
Fox News, who originally broadcast the claim, and Steve Emerson, who made these claims on Hannity, have retracted and apologised for the claims, explaining they are in error.
The Sydney Morning Herald reported:
Fox was abject in its apologies, as was Emerson. Julie Banderas, a Fox anchor, said that "over the course of this last week, we have made some regrettable errors on air regarding the Muslim population in Europe, particularly with regard to England and France."
"Now this applies especially to discussions of so-called no-go zones, areas where non-Muslims allegedly are not allowed in and police supposedly won't go," Banderas continued. "To be clear, there is no formal designation of these zones in either country and no credible information to support the assertion that there are specific areas in these countries that exclude individuals based solely on their religion."
Apologies were issued on-air three other times.
I haven't been able to reconcile where Robert Spencer, as opposed to Steve Emerson, comes into this, and the original link is no longer working to double-check that I got that detail right while editing the question.
As others say the regions are poor regions which the French government has identified as needing more help.
The Independent newspaper has an article in English covering the French satirical TV show Le Petit Journal response to this,
This includes reporters going to some of the areas and interviewing people
and re the zones
The show’s host Yann Barthès also noted the map used by Fox was taken from the National Institute of Statistics and Economic Statistics and the areas were urban zones identified for social development rather than “no-go zones”. “It has nothing, I repeat, nothing to do with security, religion or whatever bulls**t Fox says.”
and FOX news have apologised for the errors
