The Sparkhill neighborhood of Birmingham, UK (Andrew Fox/Telegraph)
The “no-go area” myth is back.
In January 2015, hard-right US politicians, the pundit Steven Emerson, and Fox News declared “no-go areas” and “no non-Muslims” in Birmingham in the heart of the UK. Fox later apologized, but British polemicists such as Douglas Murray continued to promote the falsehoods.
Now, with some members of the UK Conservative Party whipping up Islamophobia, Tory MP Paul Scully has revived the lie.
See also The Conservative Party’s Threat to British Muslims
EA’s Hasan Patel joined Rakeem Omar of BBC West Midlands on Tuesday to take apart the Islamophobia — and to explain what life is really like in the UK’s second city.
[Editor’s Note: This comment made a blatantly false claim about Birmingham and Bradford — I know because I live in Birmingham.
If commenter wishes to provide some evidence for the claim, he should do so. For now, this post is deleted.]