The no-go zones are real, and those making the threats did not, at least from the looks of this report, deny their existence. They just don’t want the general public to know about them.
In Islamic law, it is considered a good thing to conceal the faults of a fellow Muslim, as Muhammad said: “The servant (who conceals) the faults of others in this world, Allah would conceal his faults on the Day of Resurrection” (Sahih Muslim 32.6267). The ordinary understanding of slander in the West is that it involves making false charges that defame another person. But in Islamic law, the definition of slander doesn’t involve falsehood. The Shafi’i manual of Islamic law ‘Umdat al-Salik defines “slander” as “to mention anything concerning a person that he would dislike.” Nothing is said about whether or not what is said is true — only that the person would dislike it. And as the Qur’an warns, “Woe to every slandering backbiter” (104:1).
“Threats after a report on a “No-Go Zone” in Roubaix: 10 people arrested in France,” translated from “Menaces après un reportage de “Zone interdite” à Roubaix : 10 personnes interpellées en France,” FranceInfo, March 15, 2023:
Amine Elbahi, an association activist who has since entered politics with the Les Républicains party, was among those targeted by these threats in 2022. An investigation was opened for “aggravated harassment.”
Ten people were arrested on Wednesday March 14 in France in the investigation that has been opened for “aggravated harassment” after the broadcast of a report from the program No-Go Zone on M6 in January 2022, FranceInfo has learned from concordant sources.
They are suspected of having played a role in the death threats received on social networks by several people after the broadcast of the report, which was devoted to radical Islamism and partly shot in Roubaix (North). The legal consequences for these ten arrested are not known for the time being, the Paris prosecutor’s office told FranceInfo.
Among the recipients of these threats were the presenter of the show, Ophélie Meunier, and Amine Elbahi, who has since entered politics within the Les Républicains party. In the wake of the report, he had received threats on social networks.
In No-Go Zone, this Roubaisien, associative activist and 26-year-old lawyer, suspected the association “Ambitions and initiatives for success” of teaching the Koran by preaching radical Islam, under the guise of support courses in the northern commune.
The investigation was carried out by the gendarmes of the Central Office for the fight against crimes against humanity and hate crimes (OCLCH), and taken over by the national monitor of online hatred of the Paris prosecutor’s office. In addition, the Brigade for the repression of delinquency against the person (BRDP) of the Parisian judicial police is following up on the complaint of the producer of the program, Ophélie Meunier.
