How The Myth Of Lawless "No-Go Zones" In Sweden Took Hold Among Right-Wing Media

The recent shooting death of a 16-year-old has become another part of the narrative that portrays Malmö as a dangerous war zone where "migrant gangs" are wreaking havoc.

The southern city of 350,000 has become shorthand among news outlets with a strong anti-immigration bent for what happens when too many Muslims are allowed to immigrate to Western countries.

The conservative American website Daily Wire, for example, just ran a story on how "Muslim migration made Malmo, Sweden a crime capital."

A recent headline in the UK tabloid Express suggested that "thugs" had turned the entire city into a "no-go zone," areas where police are said to be unable to uphold the law.

Malmö police, however, say there's absolutely no truth to the idea of "no-go zones."

"It's a question that appears every now and then," police spokesperson Lars Förstell told BuzzFeed News. "It has never been true."

Förstell also said that while violent crime is certainly a problem, there is "nothing special about right now," and that there is no evidence any of it has to do with refugees. In fact, it appears linked to a cycle of violence among local gangs that dates back to 2008 — many years before the migration crisis.

It is virtually accepted as dogma among many right-wing news outlets and anti-Muslim activists that there are urban enclaves throughout Europe where the government has lost control, where non-Muslims are not even allowed entry, or where Sharia (Islamic law) is imposed on residents.

No country is cited as an example more often than Sweden, which has historically been very welcoming of newcomers. Since the start of the migration crisis, however, those immigration policies have come under fire from people inside Sweden and abroad for allegedly contributing to crime and the rise of these lawless areas throughout the country.

What police described were areas with socioeconomic issues related to poverty and organized crime. Sometimes police vehicles in these vulnerable areas were attacked, the report said, and the community was less likely to cooperate with investigations.

It was a newspaper columnist — not police — who dubbed these areas "no-go zones," and the idea has since taken on a life of its own. The term is now firmly tied to the influx of Middle Eastern refugees, and often invoked in anti-Muslim rhetoric.

Tales of violence committed by Muslims and refugees in Sweden often start as local crime stories that are then translated by sensationalistic UK tabloids, conservative outlets like Breitbart News, or the Russian state-funded broadcaster RT, before being further spread by fringe websites and anti-Muslim blogs in the US.