Quote of the Day: On Europe’s alleged no-go zones

“I had an opportunity today to travel at length to several banlieues (suburbs) around Paris, including Sarcelles, Val d'Oise, and Seine Saint Denis. This comes on the heels of having visited over the years the predominantly immigrant (and Muslim) areas of Brussels, Copenhagen, Malmö, Berlin, and Athens.
    “A couple of observations:
    “For a visiting American, these areas are very mild, even dull. We who know the Bronx and Detroit expect urban hell in Europe too, but there things look fine. The immigrant areas are hardly beautiful, but buildings are intact, greenery abounds, and order prevails.
    “These are not full-fledged no-go zones but, as the French nomenclature accurately indicates, "sensitive urban zones" [Zones Urbaines Sensibles]. In normal times, they are unthreatening, routine places. But they do unpredictably erupt, with car burnings, attacks on representatives of the state (including police), and riots.
    “Having this first-hand experience, I regret having called these areas no-go zones.
~ writer on Middle Eastern affairs Daniel Pipes, whose website first used the term “no-go zones,” and who originally blogged about Zones Urbaines Sensibles back in 2006 and then revised his viewpoint after seeing some of them first-hand in 2013.
From the SNOPES’ post: ‘Caliph-ain't’ debunking the trope of so-called ‘no-go zones.’