I second the request for an update

Submitted by Archimedes2 (Canada), May 5, 2007 at 14:18

Much of what has been written about ZUS, even by Pipes, appears to contain a lot of hastily drawn conclusions. From all I can gather on the web from French government sites there is little to support the Dar-al-Islam conjecture. Nevertheless, one would not expect them to hold press conferences saying they are turning over portions of the motherland to immigrants to set up a hostile state.

I think it's clear that the truth lies somewhere between the French government's reluctance to spew anything beyond politically correct statements of how they have to treat these zones "sensitively", and Pipes' and others' hasty conclusions that a form of appeasement is going on.

Also, as pointed out by commenter Daniel, the actual exclusion zones don't necessarily coincide with the ZUS, and other problems of conflict of fact, and statements that may or may not be true as generalities but contain significant exceptions. Apparently not all ZUS exist for the same purpose, and the relationship of each to "Islamic communities" varies across the country.

A better investigated report is called for, and I wouldn't blame Pipes for delegating that to someone else -- he's got more pressing things to work on. Nevertheless, I second the request for something more substantial, more specific, and better documented than we have so far. What, for example, is the nature of exclusion? And how is this related to similar exclusion zones in other EU countries?

What instances have we that support the contention that Muslims regard (some of) these zones as exclusively for their use and as forbidden for kuffar authorities to trespass (I can come up with a few, but I bet someone at MEF has the resources to investigate this question properly). I look forward to seeing the update.

Thanks, Mr. Pipes, for keeping us up to date on these issues.

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