American right-wing news channel Fox News claimed this week that the British City Birmingham is 100% Muslim, and a place where non-Muslims just don’t go.
Steve Emerson who is a ‘terrorism expert’ made the claim on Sunday, which has since surprised the people of England and proud city of Birmingham telling them something that they didn’t know.
“In Britain, it’s not just no-go zones, there are actual cities like Birmingham that are totally Muslim where non-Muslims just simply don’t go in,” he said.
“Parts of London, there are actually Muslim religious police that actually beat and actually wound seriously anyone who doesn’t dress according to Muslim, religious Muslim attire,” he proclaimed, without giving examples.
Mr Emerson, who quite clearly has not been to the city, described Birmingham as one of a number of European cities “where Sharia courts were set up, where Muslim density is very intense, where the police don’t go in, and where it’s basically a separate country almost, a country within a country.”
Since this error, Mr Emerson has since apologised for his comments and for what he called his “sloppy research” and “inexcusable error” and said he “deserved the pain and hurt” he has experienced since.
But while we can laugh at this catastrophic error, this clearly shows the ignorance of mainstream media. As the facts (yes Fox News, FACTS) clearly show, Birmingham is far from being 100% Muslim.
At the last count (2011 Census) this was the religious make-up of Birmingham:
Christianity (46.1%)
Islam (21.8%)
Sikhism (3.0%)
Hinduism (2.1%)
Buddhism (0.4%)
Non-religious (19.3%)
Undeclared (7.3%)
I have never been the strongest at Maths, but the last time I checked 21.8% was not equal to 100%. So either Fox News have got their facts completely wrong or they are terrible at Maths.
The other point I want to make here is, even if there are a high population of Muslims in Birmingham, is that really to be seen as a problem? Surely as intelligent human beings we can live in a society where people can believe what they want to believe without it having an effect on society.
I am not a religious believer, but can happily except people who are as long as they do not force it upon others and myself; I believe that everyone has freedom and power to believe what he or she wants to believe.
My second point is, just because someone is a believer in Islam, does not mean that automatically they are a terrorist or support the views of terrorist organisations.
CNN anchor Don Lemon asked Muslim-American human rights lawyer Arsalan Iftikhar if he supports ISIS
Last week, CNN anchor Don Lemon asked Muslim-American human rights lawyer Arsalan Iftikhar if he supports ISIS. As a training Journalist, I stood back and shouted to the TV screen, “What! Are you being serious?!” Surely a well-respected Journalist would not ask a Muslim human rights lawyer whether he supports the actions of an organisation that violates human rights?
We can argue that this is sensationalist and somewhat lazy from Don Lemon, but in my opinion it is just pure ignorance, and when the main stream media start being ignorant, we have a real problem on our hands.
Sometimes I wonder whatever happened to saying ‘Don’t judge a book by its cover’?
The Chris Milligan blog 