In late March, the European Conservatives and Reformists Group, a center-right political group in the European Parliament, published a report about no-go zones in Europe about no-go zones in Europe titled “Immigration, Islamisation, and the Rise of Parallel Societies: Focus on urban areas of Islamist entrenchment and state withdrawal,” authored by New Direction – Foundation for European Conservatism
For many years, the existence of no-go zones in European cities was publicly denied by the ruling elites and their spokespersons in the mainstream media. If anyone raised the issue, as US President Donald Trump did in December 2015, when he spoke of no-go zones in London and Paris, or here at Gatestone Institute, they were mocked and denigrated for it (here and here). Meanwhile, the problem exponentiated. According to the report:
“There are now an estimated 900 to 1,000 areas across Europe that exhibit the key characteristics of no-go zones. This includes major urban suburbs as well as districts in medium-sized or smaller cities, reflecting a broad and growing territorial trend.”
Given the enormity of the problem, the authors of the report had to limit their focus to “seven EU countries where no-go zones are most reported: France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Belgium, Sweden, and the Netherlands.”
The report noted — no surprise — that no-go zones are closely correlated to the mass immigration of Muslims into Europe since the 1970s (more than 40% of the population in the studied no-go zones is “foreign-born”). The report adds:
“The Muslim population is markedly overrepresented in designated no-go zones. In these areas, the average proportion of Muslim residents reaches 29%, significantly exceeding both the EU-wide average of 4,9% and the average in comparable urban areas outside no-go zones….
Since 2000, a disproportionate share of asylum seekers and new EU citizens have come from countries where Islam is the dominant religion. Of the top 15 origin countries among asylum seekers between January 2024 and March 2025, 11 are Muslim-majority… Similarly, the 3 largest nationality groups granted EU citizenship in 2023 were all from Muslim-majority nations (Syria, Morocco, and Albania).”
No-go zones, according to the report, are especially characterized by high rates of crime, violence and terrorist recruitment. In Belgium in 2022, 44% of all robberies took place in Brussels — home to just 10% of the country’s population – and in the no-go zone of Molenbeek.
Some of the most notorious Muslim terrorists grew up in Molenbeek or spent time there, including those behind the 2015 Paris attacks, the 2016 Brussels airport and metro attacks, and the 2014 attack at the Jewish Museum of Belgium. Molenbeek was apparently also a breeding ground for terrorist recruitment for ISIS, with Belgium contributing the highest number per capita of Western ISIS fighters.
“Molenbeek is like another world, another culture, festering in the heart of the West,” journalist Matthew Levitt wrote in 2016, after the Paris attacks.
Molenbeek, however, is just one example. According to the report:
“Several European neighborhoods have repeatedly played a key role in jihadist networks…. Seine-Saint-Denis [a Paris suburb]… has produced several figures of French jihadism. Samy Amimour, a member of the Bataclan terrorist commando, was born in Drancy. Other members of jihadist networks (such as the ‘Cannes-Torcy’ cell) came from towns like Clichy-sous-Bois, Aulnay-sous-Bois, or Stains…. In summary, European no-go zones provide an environment where terrorism can more easily take root.”
In the UK, states the report, parts of the industrial-scale rape of white girls by predominantly Pakistani Muslim gangs took place “particularly in no-go zones like Rotherham, Rochdale, and Oldham” through “a disturbing pattern of state complicity through silence and inaction.”
“This institutional reluctance, driven by political correctness, allowed gangs to operate with impunity in NGZs, where cultural segregation and weak policing created fertile ground for such crimes, effectively rendering the state an accomplice through its failure to protect victims.”
No-go zones are also parallel societies that follow Islamic norms predicated on sharia law — far removed from Western norms — rather than the law of the land in which they live:
“In Western Europe, especially in France and the UK, community-based Islamic structures are establishing parallel normative systems that operate independently of national laws. The most emblematic example is the United Kingdom, where Sharia Councils function as unofficial religious courts. The most well-known, the Islamic Sharia Council in London (established in 1982), handles over 1,000 cases per year, primarily concerning family law (marriage, divorce, inheritance, child custody)….
“Investigative reports revealed disturbing practices: women pressured to return to abusive husbands, divorces denied without the husband’s consent, and blatant inequality in child custody and property division. Officially, these councils claim to operate within British law, but in practice, they prioritize patriarchal religious norms over civil rights.”
These Islamic norms spill over into the “mainstream.” In Germany in 2014, Muslims created “sharia patrols” to enforce religious rules in the streets of Wuppertal. Initially the patrol was deemed legal by a local court, but this was later overturned by the federal judiciary. Showcasing how extremely poorly equipped authorities are to deal with this sort of torment, the Muslim men were fined symbolic amounts for simply wearing illegal uniforms, but not for their vigilante brutality enforcing sharia law.
Nowadays, Muslim men in certain neighborhoods simply corner women and harass them. Belinda de Lucy, a British former member of the European Parliament was accosted in the street near her home in west London while walking to pick up her daughters from school. Two Muslim men in Islamic garb blocked her from walking down the street, threatening her, shouting at her, and calling her names for not wearing sharia-conforming dress (she was wearing a large T-shirt and shorts halfway down her knees) until she burst into tears and called the police.
“What is happening? This is my home!” de Lucy said in a television interview, describing how the police’s response was as scary as what should rightly be called an assault.
“They sent round a gentleman [police officer] who kept reminding me that he was Muslim… I felt I had to be careful what I say and how I address this… in the end all I got from the local police was ‘We’ll talk to the local imam and get him to chat with the congregation.’ And it really shocked me…”
It is not so shocking, considering that in Muslim-majority countries, which often practice gender apartheid, women have no rights and are regarded as second-class, inferior beings, like property:
“Women have rights similar to those of men equitably, although men have a degree ˹of responsibility˺ above them. And Allah is Almighty, All-Wise.”
— Quran: 2:228 (Dr. Mustafa Khattab translation)“Men are in charge of women by [right of] what Allah has given one over the other and what they spend [for maintenance] from their wealth. So righteous women are devoutly obedient, guarding in [the husband’s] absence what Allah would have them guard. But those [wives] from whom you fear arrogance – [first] advise them; [then if they persist], forsake them in bed; and [finally], strike them. But if they obey you [once more], seek no means against them. Indeed, Allah is ever Exalted and Grand.”
— Quran 4:34 (Sahih International translation)“O women, give in charity, for I have been shown that you are the majority of the inhabitants of Hell.”
They asked, “Why is that, O Messenger of Allah?”
He replied, “You curse a lot and are ungrateful to your husbands. I have not seen anyone more deficient in intellect and religion who overcomes the mind of a resolute man more than one of you.”
They asked, “O Messenger of Allah, what is the deficiency in our intellect and religion?”
He said, “Is not the testimony of a woman equal to half the testimony of a man?”
They said, “Yes.”
He said, “That is the deficiency in her intellect.”
— Hadith: Sahih al-Bokhari“The Prophet (ﷺ) said, ‘Isn’t the witness of a woman equal to half of that of a man?’ The women said, ‘Yes.’ He said, ‘This is because of the deficiency of a woman’s mind.'”
— Narrated Abu Sa’id Al-Khudri, Hadith, Sahih al-Bukhari 2658, Book 52 Hadith 22; Vol:3, Book 48, Hadith 826
The report continues:
“The rise of Islamic norms comes with a transformation of urban life in immigrant-dense neighborhoods… European traditions and customs give way to conservative Muslim practices…
“In suburbs like Sevran, located in the Seine-Saint-Denis departement in France, women have reported being informally excluded from cafés and local restaurants….
“Numerous testimonies… describe women facing insults, intimidation, or exclusion for failing to conform to Islamic dress codes. In such contexts, what was once a personal religious expression becomes a communal norm, enforced not by the state but by the collective will of the neighborhood.
“In Grenoble, legal and political tensions escalated after the city’s ecologist mayor, Éric Piolle, proposed changes to public swimming pool regulations. These included allowing female-only swimming hours and authorizing the wearing of burkinis… Grenoble, a city with a significant Muslim population, became a national focal point in the ongoing debate over religious accommodation in public life…. In the end, the French supreme administrative court… ruled against such accommodations, affirming the principle that public institutions must remain free from religious particularism.”
The report concludes:
“Europe now stands at a crossroads. An increasing segment of the European population is now rejecting the values, symbols, and collective identity of their country of citizenship, giving rise to a new class of nationals who feel no allegiance to the nation-state and do not recognize themselves in its cultural roots and project.”
The real question is whether this shift — perpetrated by European leaders who seem solely self-interested in wooing votes, can be reversed — or whether European citizens are looking at a future of inevitable submission to Islam. At present, unfortunately, the second path appears more likely.