Indeed, my taxi driver, Abdullah Kassimi, of Moroccan heritage, thought long and hard before agreeing to take me to Molenbeek, though he lived there for four years before escaping to the more affluent Anderlecht.

‘It just isn’t a place where outsiders are very welcome among some people,’ he shrugged, when I asked him why.

It comes as little surprise, then, that this is the suburb believed to have spawned the evil architects of the Paris atrocities, including its supposed mastermind, Abdelhamid Abaaoud (who lived in one of the more affluent neighbourhoods, close to the canal, before stealing away to become a jihadi in Syria).

What is surprising — truly shocking, in fact — is the sheer number of dangerous fanatics to have emerged from this obscure enclave.

It has gained such an appalling reputation for radicalising and sustaining Islamic fanatics that it is regarded, among politicians, the intelligence services and academics alike, as the cradle of European terrorism.