See also
- Banlieue
- Crime in France
- Vulnerable area - a similar classification for areas in Sweden
A sensitive urban zone (French : Zone urbaine sensible, ZUS) is an urban area in France defined by the authorities to be a high-priority target for city policy, taking into consideration local circumstances related to the problems of its residents. [1]
On the 26th of December 1996, 750 ZUS were founded by the décret n°96-1156. The 751th ZUS «Nouveau Mons» in Mons-en-Baroeul was founded on the 24th of August 2000 by the décret n°2000- 796. On the 31st of July 2001, the décret n°2001-707 has changed the périmeter of Grigny's ZUS.
There are 751 sensitive urban zones in France, including 718 in mainland France. [1] The government has published the list of zones and maps of each one. [2]
Nearly five million people live in zones of difficulty with many problems: [1]
A law passed November 14, 1996 created sensitive urban zones (ZUS) and urban tax-free zones (ZFU). 752 of these zones were created in France, including 718 in mainland France. [1] The law of November 14, 1996 (which implements a renewed urban policy) distinguishes three levels of intervention:
The three levels of intervention (ZUS, ZRU and ZFU), characterized by fiscal and social measures of increasing importance, target the difficulties encountered in these districts with differing degrees of response. [1] Contrary to generally accepted ideas, these sensitive districts are in the center of cities and not just the outskirts. [3]
The situation in these areas in difficulty was (until recently) difficult to evaluate precisely, based on many statistics which were inadequate in certain areas, scattered or badly collected. To remedy these problems and more accurately measure the effect of policy implementation, the National Observatory of Sensitive Urban Zones (ZUS) was created in a law passed on August 1, 2003. [4]
These ZUS are distributed throughout 490 communes and include 4.7 million inhabitants. Among them a subset of 416 zones of urban renewal (ZRU) was created, including 396 in mainland France. The ZRU contain 3.2 million inhabitants, and present unique challenges. Almost all departments are affected; the only exceptions are nine strongly agricultural departments. [5]
In 2010, Raphaël Stainville of French newspaper Le Figaro called certain neighborhoods of the southern city Perpignan "veritable lawless zones", saying they had become too dangerous to travel in at night. He added that the same was true in parts of Béziers and Nîmes. [6] In 2012, Gilles Demailly , the mayor of the French city Amiens, in the wake of several riots, called the northern part of his city a lawless zone, where one could no longer order a pizza or call for a doctor. The head of a local association said institutional violence had contributed to the tensions resulting in the no-go zone. [7] [ verify ] In 2014, Fabrice Balanche, a scholar of the Middle East, labelled the northern city of Roubaix, as well as parts of Marseille, "mini-Islamic states", saying that the authority of the state is completely absent there. [8] In 2005 France's domestic intelligence network, the Renseignements Generaux, identified 150 "no-go zones" around the country where police would not enter without reinforcements. Christopher Dickey, writing in Newsweek , claimed the situation had arisen due to racism towards immigrants. [9]
In January 2015, after the Charlie Hebdo shooting, several items on Fox News labeled the ZUS as "Islamic no-go zones". [10] French media agencies denied these claims. [11] [12] After complaints Fox News issued an apology, saying that there was "no credible information to support the assertion there are specific areas in these countries that exclude individuals based solely on their religion." [13] [14] [15]
Islam is a minority religion in France that is followed by around 3 million to 5.7 million people in France, which is around 4% to 10% of the nation's population.
Nigel Paul Farage is a British politician and broadcaster who has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Clacton and Leader of Reform UK since 2024, having previously been its leader from 2019 to 2021. He was the leader of the UK Independence Party (UKIP) from 2006 to 2009 and 2010 to 2016. Farage served as a member of the European Parliament (MEP) for South East England from 1999 until the UK's withdrawal from the European Union (EU) in 2020.
Sevran is a commune in the French department of Seine-Saint-Denis, northeastern suburbs of Paris, Île-de-France. It is located 16.2 km (10.1 mi) from the center of Paris.
An aire urbaine is an INSEE statistical concept describing a core of urban development and the extent of its commuter activity. It was replaced by the concept "functional area", which uses the same definition as Eurostat's functional urban areas, in 2020.
The French Council of the Muslim Faith, is a national elected body, to serve as an official interlocutor with the French state in the regulation of Muslim religious activities. It is a non-profit group created on 28 May 2003 by Nicolas Sarkozy and a group of Islamic students who felt they needed better representation in their country. The council consists of 25 CRCMs. From 2008 to 2013 the president of the CFCM was Mohammed Moussaoui, a CIO of SFR French telecommunications company representing the Rassemblement des musulmans de France.
Charlie Hebdo is a French satirical weekly magazine, featuring cartoons, reports, polemics, and jokes. The publication has been described as anti-racist, sceptical, secular, libertarian and within the tradition of left-wing radicalism, publishing articles about the far-right, religion, politics and culture.
La Courneuve is a commune in Seine-Saint-Denis, France. It is located 8.3 km (5.2 mi) from the center of Paris.
The word banlieue, which is French for "suburb", does not necessarily refer to an environment of social disenfranchisement. Indeed, there exist many wealthy suburbs, such as Neuilly-sur-Seine and Versailles outside Paris. Nevertheless, the plural term banlieues has often been used to describe troubled suburban communities—those with high unemployment, high crime rates, as well as frequently, a high proportion of residents of foreign origin mainly from former French African colonies and therefore Berbers, Blacks, Portuguese, Spanish and Arabs.
A "no-go area" or "no-go zone" is a neighborhood or other geographic area where some or all outsiders are either physically prevented from entering or can enter at risk. The term includes exclusion zones, which are areas that are officially kept off-limits by the government, such as border zones and military exclusion zones. It also includes areas held by violent non-state actors, such as guerillas/insurgents, organized crime and terrorist organizations. In some cases, these areas have been held by insurgent organizations attempting to topple the government, such as Free Derry, an area in Northern Ireland that was held by the Irish Republican Army from 1969 to 1972. In other cases, the areas simply coexist alongside the state; an example is Kowloon Walled City, an area in Hong Kong essentially ruled by triad organizations from the 1950s to the 1970s.
The Paris metropolitan area is a statistical area that describes the reach of commuter movement to and from Paris, France and its surrounding suburbs.
Caroline Fourest, is a French writer, film director, journalist, radio presenter at France Culture, and editor of the magazine ProChoix. She was also a columnist for Charlie Hebdo, for Le Monde until 14 July 2012, and she joined Marianne in 2016. She frequently appears on French media to discss issues related to Muslims, feminism, Charlie Hebdo and Israel.
The Goutte d'Or is a neighbourhood in Paris, located in the 18th arrondissement of Paris.
ZUS may refer to:
Zone interdite is a French newsmagazine that has been broadcast since 7 March 1993 on M6, the second-most watched TV network in the French-speaking world. Well known for its investigative journalism, the show has long been considered one of the most influential in France and has been awarded the 7 d'or in 2000 for best newsmagazine on TV. It is currently presented by Ophélie Meunier.
On 7 January 2015, at about 11:30 a.m. in Paris, France, the employees of the French satirical weekly magazine Charlie Hebdo were targeted in a terrorist shooting attack by two French-born Algerian Muslim brothers, Saïd Kouachi and Chérif Kouachi. Armed with rifles and other weapons, the duo murdered 12 people and injured 11 others; they identified themselves as members of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, which claimed responsibility for the attack. They fled after the shooting, triggering a manhunt, and were killed by the GIGN on 9 January. The Kouachi brothers' attack was followed by several related Islamist terrorist attacks across the Île-de-France between 7 and 9 January 2015, including the Hypercacher kosher supermarket siege, in which a French-born Malian Muslim took hostages and murdered four people before being killed by French commandos.
On 9 January 2015, Amedy Coulibaly, armed with a submachine gun, an assault rifle, and two Tokarev pistols, entered and attacked a Hypercacher kosher supermarket in Porte de Vincennes in Paris, France. There, Coulibaly murdered four Jewish hostages and held fifteen other hostages during a siege in which he demanded that the perpetrators of the Charlie Hebdo shooting, the Kouachi brothers, not be harmed. The siege ended when police stormed the supermarket, killing Coulibaly. The Charlie Hebdo shooting had taken place just days earlier, as did the Dammartin-en-Goële hostage crisis, in which the two Charlie Hebdo gunmen were cornered.
From 7 to 9 January 2015, terrorist attacks occurred across the Île-de-France region, particularly in Paris. Three attackers killed a total of 17 people in four shooting attacks, and police then killed the three assailants. The attacks also wounded 22 other people. A fifth shooting attack did not result in any fatalities. Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) claimed responsibility and said that the coordinated attacks had been planned for years. The claim of responsibility for the deadly attack on the magazine came in a video showing AQAP commander Nasr Ibn Ali al-Ansi, with gunmen in the background that were later identified as the Kouachi brothers. However, while authorities say the video is authentic, there is no proof that AQAP helped to carry out the attacks. Amedy Coulibaly, who committed another leg of the attacks claimed that he belonged to ISIS before he died.
Lycée-Collège Averroès is a private Muslim junior and senior high school/high school and sixth-form college in Lille, France. It contracted with the state and receives government subsidies, doing so since 2008; As of 2013 it is the only Islamic secondary school in France to do so. The Lycée is located in Lille-Sud adjacent to a mosque.
Mustapha Ourrad was a French Algerian copy editor, killed during the 2015 Charlie Hebdo shooting.
The neighborhood La Source is one of the twelve neighborhoods of the French commune of Orléans, a city located in the Loiret department in the Centre-Val de Loire region.