Tom Lennie reviews ‘No Go Zones’ by Raheem Kassam (2017, Regnery Publishing).

There has been much heated debate in recent years regarding the extent and effects of Islamic extremism across Europe, with Donald Trump being vilified for daring to suggest that Sweden was experiencing major problems with its steady influx of Muslim immigrants.

The idea that there are actual ‘no-go zones’ in various European cities – Muslim-dominated districts where Sharia law can prevail and from which the police stay well clear - has caused even more contention, many liberal commentators insisting that such ‘zones’ are purely a figment of the ‘far right’s’ imagination.

Both the title and sub-title of this book – ‘How Sharia Law is Coming to a Neighbourhood Near You’ - are deliberately (and perhaps unnecessarily?) provocative. The author, a former senior advisor to Nigel Farage and editor of the Breibart website, is himself an ex-Muslim, being brought up in the Ismaili sect of Shia Islam.

In this his first book, Kassam (now a self-confessed atheist) takes on the role of investigative journalist, as he makes a personal tour of the most potent Islamic community-strongholds across the Western world – or at least across Europe and North America.

Kassam makes a personal tour of the most potent Islamic community-strongholds in the Western world.

Selective Survey

I was surprised that the Kolenkit area in Amsterdam isn’t given a mention, nor one of the Muslim-majority districts of Rotterdam. Instead, Kassam restricts his European survey to four other countries - France (various Parisian suburbs, such as Aulnay-sois-Bois, and the southern town of Beziers), Sweden (particularly Malmo, but also Stockholm), Belgium (the north Brussels district of Molenbeek, home to one of the surviving terrorists who took part in the 2015 Paris attacks which killed 130 people and injured hundreds more), and the United Kingdom. Here attention is focused on the Yorkshire town of Dewsbury and on various parts of London.

Crossing the Atlantic, the areas the author is concerned with in the USA are Hamtramck, Michigan (“essentially an Islamic colony in the Midwest”), and the Californian city of San Bernardino – quite different communities to those investigated by Erick Stakelbeck in his 2011 book, ‘The Terrorist Next Door’.

Conversations On the Ground

Kassam discusses the varying degrees to which these districts truly are ‘no go zones’ – clearly not wholly so, since he himself entered each of them relatively freely, although he was careful in his movements. He converses with local residents of differing ethnic backgrounds, as well as local policemen (whose anonymous testimonies often contradict official police reports) and other intelligent parties. 

Through these, and his own insights, Kassam provides evidence that in each of these districts ‘infidels’ are made to feel distinctly unwelcome, a subculture of resentment is fostered against the very nation that hosts them (and very often houses, clothes and feeds them), every effort is made to ensure that Islamic law governs, and extremism is growing at an alarming rate.

Kassam converses with local residents of differing ethnic backgrounds, as well as local policemen.

A Compelling Read

While the intent is clearly to shock and disturb, Kassam does provide a degree of balance.

He is first to admit that the areas discussed in the book are not aflame (for the most part) with radical Islam. You won’t get flogged if you enter them, and you’re unlikely to encounter screeching Islamist imams on their street corners. As is stated in the foreword, often the people who inhabit such districts are victims of their own community leaders, whose very desire is to create no-go zones and to drive a wedge between migrant communities and native populations.

It’s a fast-moving, compelling read, which also discusses the degree to which socio-economic factors play a role in extremism, as well as the part played by Western media and governments, who constantly downplay the reality of the tensions within such ‘problem’ communities. All in all, a fascinating book.

‘No Go Zones: How Sharia Law Is Coming To A Neighbourhood Near You’ (256pp, hardcover) is available widely, including on Amazon. RRP £20.99. Also available as an audio-book and as an e-book.