Security analyst Steven Emerson said Sunday that “non-Muslims just simply don’t go in” to the city, during a discussion of multiculturalism in Britain after last week’s Paris attacks.
“When I heard this, I choked on my porridge and I thought it must be April Fool’s Day. This guy is clearly a complete idiot,” Cameron told ITV News.
“What he should do is look at Birmingham and see what a fantastic example it is of bringing people together of different faiths, different backgrounds,” he said.
Emerson later apologised, saying it was a “beautiful city” and announcing that he would make a donation to Birmingham Children’s Hospital.
According to the latest census data from 2011, 21.8 percent of the city’s one million residents are Muslim — one of the highest proportions in Britain.
Bemused Britons — including locals known as “Brummies” — meanwhile mocked Emerson.
Under the hashtag #foxnewsfacts, user @chris_wilde tweeted a picture of a convoy of jihadists waving black Islamic State group flags with the quip: “Heavy traffic reported in Birmingham today”.
The 1980s Birmingham band Duran Duran have been forced to change their name to Quran Quran, joked @msalimkassam, while @petermoore said of the city’s landmark telecom tower: “Birmingham City Mosque is among the tallest and most sacred in all Islam”.
Journalist Rob Crilly, writing also on Twitter, joked that Birmingham Bullring, a shopping centre, was in fact “where Christians were put to death”.
Many made references to the city’s cricketing tradition.
“Terrifying photo of how a typical Muslim from Birmingham guards the city gates against infidels,” said one user, showing a picture of a bearded cricketer with his bat ready to hit a ball.
Another published a picture of Queen Elizabeth II in a kerchief reading: “In the UK, the Queen must wear a headscarf by law when she visits Birmingham.”
A third referred to Britain’s unpredictable climate, joking that Muslims were in fact controlling it: “In some places it’s Sunni, but mainly Shi’ite”.
"Citizens in the United Kingdom — including Prime Minister David Cameron — are expressing frustration with Saturday’s episode of the Fox News show Justice with Judge Jeanine, blasting one of the show’s guests for making wildly inaccurate claims about Islam and a British city.
In a segment meant to discuss “no-go zones” — or regions in Europe that are supposedly off-limits to non-Muslims — host Jeanine Pirro called on guest Steven Emerson, a Fox News terrorism “expert” whose career is riddled with hyperbolic claims, inaccurate reporting, and even suspicious financial arrangements. After riffing on “no-go zones” as “a country within a country,” Emerson specifically cited the British city of Birmingham as home to a population that is “totally Muslim.”
“And 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."* The Young Turks hosts Cenk Uygur breaks it down.
I happened to have been born in Birmingham, Britain’s second-largest city, though I remained there only a few months. My parents were pleased to leave the famously grim metropolis shortly after my birth in search of warmer climes. But from what I was hearing on Fox News, the weather was now merely the most prosaic of Brum’s horrors.
“Muslim density is very intense, where the police don’t go in, where it’s basically a separately country within a country,” Steve Emerson told the network on Sunday. His host, Jeanine Pirro, looked nonplussed. “It sounds like a caliphate within a particular country.”
As in Pakistan six years ago, a fact-finding mission was required.
Driving into the neighborhood of King’s Heath, a church loomed ahead, apparently in a state of advanced decay. The brick structure was mostly blackened. This, I later learned, was a product of not some Taliban-style assault but the accretion of Birmingham’s notoriously unclean air. Inside there were no parishioners. Even on a Sunday, local residents reported, it attracts fewer people than fit on the top deck of a Birmingham bus.
Of much greater prominence, of course, was the Birmingham Central Mosque. The imposing domed building cast a long shadow over the highway that runs alongside it. In the parking lot, dark long vehicles were emblazoned with ominous messages. “Every soul shall taste death,” one read. There was a long wooden box inside that strikingly resembled a coffin.
I assumed that the central mosque would be the seat of power of the Brummie caliph, from which he would presumably exhort the faithful to take up arms against the infidel threat and expand his domain. With Shakespeare’s birthplace of Stratford-upon-Avon an hour away and the original town of Hollywood even nearer, great symbolic victories lay within reach.
Inside, however, the mosque looked almost abandoned, not unlike the church I saw earlier. There were no worshippers crowded under the vast chandelier that dangled from the peak of its dome. For afternoon prayers, there weren’t enough to fill the first row. Most traipsed quietly onto the streets afterward, without a single “Death to America” or similar chant.
As he slipped his shoes back on, I asked Basharat Hussain, a 39-year-old neatly bearded taxi driver, about the claims that he now lived in a de facto caliphate. “I don’t know about anything like that,” he said. “I just work and go to the mosque.” Most of his clientele are non-Muslims. “It’s all right. Most of them are friendly.” He was equally enthusiastic, in a Brummie sort of way, about his city. “It’s all right, I guess.”
Near the pulpit, an elderly prayer leader was delivering a spirited harangue. I hastened over to catch his words. It turned out to be a disappointing disquisition on the merits of maintaining silence in a mosque. “Why are people talking when they come to God’s home?” asked Muhammad Farhan Muhammad, 83.
What did he think of the massacre in Paris?
“It’s wrong. Very wrong,” he said. “How can you just attack someone like that?” He then quoted a saying of the Prophet Muhammad: “You have to love for all the people what you love for yourself. You have to think for all the people what you think for yourself.”
Confused by his timidity, I began searching elsewhere for this caliphate’s elusive power center and for signs of its influence. At the Malt House pub, there were suspiciously few drinkers, although the barmen were happy to serve. Apparently this wasn’t an act of heroic defiance, though, because the caliphate hadn’t managed to eliminate many traces of the British culture around it. “Nightlife in Birmingham is pretty bad,” said Steven Ingram, an ale-sipping factory worker. He insisted that the principal division in Birmingham is social class rather than race or religion.
Ingram and his friends were crestfallen when they realized the Fox News clip wasn’t, in fact, a piece of accomplished satire. “At first, I thought it was quite funny,” said Sam Doran, 30. He was, however, aware of the city’s tattered reputation. “To be honest, there are worse cities,” he said as persuasively as he could. Perhaps the local tourism board might adopt that as a marketing slogan.
Amy Alcock, 22, was unsure why anyone would visit Birmingham. “People come here from America,” she said, saying it was because Bill Clinton had visited the city. “Surely there are lots of other places he’s visited too?” She was even more disbelieving of Spanish visitors. “Why have you come from Spain to here?!” she asked in disbelief.
It may be Britain’s second city, but it doesn’t have its own edition of Time Out. I asked the drinkers if they could suggest a nearby attraction. “You could go to …” Doran started to suggest, before remembering, “Oh, yeah, that’s now closed.” Perhaps the religious police were active after all?
Eventually they agreed on the Birmingham Library. “It’s like the biggest library outside America,” said Ingram approvingly. Presumably, the local Taliban hadn’t gotten around to burning the books.
Along Broad Street, I encountered Catherine Jones, 27, a lawyer. She was well apprised of Fox’s analysis. “It must be a stealth operation,” she said. “I haven’t noticed anything like that.” Does she, a former Londoner, enjoy Birmingham? “It’s a normal English town,” she said without any discernible cheer. “It’s very multicultural.”
At the library, many hadn’t seen the video. As they watched it on my phone, listeners leaned in, their faces assumed a look that blurred the line between alarm and incredulity. “Where are they talking about? What, here?!”
In the foyer, an exhibition depicts the first wave of Muslim arrivals from the 1950s — the generation of my grandfather, who abandoned Pakistan for Britain. I searched the display for their motives, keeping a keen eye for out for any hint of their imperial ambitions in Birmingham.
“The first time I came here, I saw the lights,” read a quote from Mohammed Sajawal. “I thought this is a rich country. I liked everything here.” Rashida Sharif was equally taken by the place. “It was all weird at first,” she was quoted as saying, “as we had not seen electricity or sanitation before.”
By the exit was a stall testifying to the new caliphate’s awareness of the need to promote itself. It bore a mountain of T-shirts, mugs and caps bearing the legend “I (heart) Birmingham.” In the minds of some, that might be the equivalent of a black flag bearing the shahada. But for the most part, the Birmingham caliphate is doing a fearfully good job of camouflaging its true nature — under a façade of pervasive ennui.
'Want to knock Birmingham? You've got nowhere to hide' Fox News pundit Steve Emerson (left) and Birmingham City Council leader Sir Albert Bore Council leader Sir Albert Bore tells of his pride at city's humorous takedown of Fox News' false 'Muslim-only city' claim Jan 14, 2015 http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/want-knock-birmingham-youve-nowhere-8445573 [with comments]
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Fox News In The Racial Smear Zone On ‘No Go Zones’
Published on Jan 14, 2015 by The Young Turks
"Entire neighborhoods of Paris, London, and other European cities have become Muslim-run "no-go zones," off-limits to law enforcement and governed by Islamic sharia law. The story, making the rounds since last week's Paris terror attacks, is shocking—and demonstrably untrue. Yet it continues to spread.
Steve Emerson, a U.S. television commentator, set off a firestorm in Britain on Jan. 11 when he told Fox News that "non-Muslims just simply don't go in" to the British city of Birmingham, and that in some parts of London, "religious police" beat people who don't wear "religious Muslim attire." Prime Minister David Cameron called Emerson "a complete idiot," and Emerson quickly backtracked, admitting he had made "an inexcusable error." British social media had a field day, with Twitter posts showing "sharia-compliant" cloth-covered jars of homemade jam and photoshopped images of mosques dominating the Birmingham skyline.
The story didn't die there."* The Young Turks host Cenk Uygur breaks it down.
Fox News analyst shouldn't be held responsible for being completely wrong
- Fox News analyst describes 'no-go zones' in England that are off-limits to non-Muslims. But they don't exist.
- Huppke defends Fox News analyst criticized for being completely wrong, explains how Northbrook is run by cats.
By Rex W. Huppke January 14, 2015, 6:59 PM
Steven Emerson is a terrorism analyst. It says so right under his name when he appears on Fox News, so I know the title is accurate and his punditry beyond reproach..
Despite such sterling credentials, this fine man has spent the week enduring scurrilous attacks from people who have a selfish predilection for the truth. If there's one thing I hate, it's seeing a perfectly good expert criticized simply because the words that came out of his mouth were demonstrably false.
On Sunday, Emerson appeared on Fox News with host Jeanine Pirro and discussed parts of Europe that Pirro referred to as "no-go zones," areas that are supposedly off-limits to non-Muslim people. Emerson said: "So you basically have zones where Shariah 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."
He then got specific: "And 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. And 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."
In the British city of Birmingham, Emerson's comment caused quite a stir, primarily because only about 20 percent of the city's population is Muslim. And Birmingham is not run by Muslims. And there are no religious police beating people based on fashion choices.
British Prime Minister David Cameron said to ITV News: "When I heard this, frankly, I choked on my porridge and I thought it must be April Fool's Day. This guy's clearly a complete idiot."
That struck me as a rather rude thing to say to a TV-famous terrorism analyst who made the small and understandable mistake of saying something that was utterly and completely wrong and possibly made up out of thin air.
The reaction from the fact-centric Internet-o-sphere was so fierce that Emerson — clearly the victim here — was forced to publish an apology on his Web page:
"I have clearly made a terrible error for which I am deeply sorry. My comments about Birmingham were totally in error. And I am issuing this apology and correction for having made this comment about the beautiful city of Birmingham. I do not intend to justify or mitigate my mistake by stating that I had relied on other sources because I should have been much more careful. There was no excuse for making this mistake and I owe an apology to every resident of Birmingham."
The text of his correction is placed just above the full video clip of his interview with Pirro, graciously allowing everyone to still see his admittedly nonfactual but very true-sounding comments.
Emerson also made donations totaling more than $1,000 to a children's hospital and two hospices in Birmingham, despite the fact that he has no way of knowing whether that children's hospital is run by radicalized Muslim children who refuse to treat non-Muslim children.
This overreaction to such a simple error has been shameful, and I feel bad — and partially responsible — for all Emerson has faced. You see, I'm almost certain he made his "no-go zone" comments because he was recalling my extensive reporting on the rise of feline no-go zones throughout the greater Chicago area.
Local public figures haven't been willing to address this yet, but there are parts of the city of Chicago and its surrounding suburbs that are off-limits to nonfeline humans and other animals, especially dogs. You basically have zones where Felis Catus courts have been set up, where Persian cat density is very intense and where it's basically a separate country within a country.
It's horrifying, yet few will admit it's happening. (In fact, I'm the only one.)
The suburb of Northbrook is now totally feline — police and canine units won't go in for fear of being severely scratched. The village is patrolled by religious police cats who actually beat and seriously wound anyone who doesn't dress according to feline religious attire (no clothing, light collar, small bell).
My guess is Emerson just got his facts a bit screwed up, mistaking Birmingham for Chicago and peaceful British human beings for cats. Who among us hasn't done that?
CORRECTION: Shortly after I finished writing the above column, I realized I had made a terrible error for which I am truly sorry. My comments about Northbrook and parts of the city of Chicago were totally in error.
My claim that I have done extensive reporting on feline no-go zones was completely false. I have done no reporting on this subject, primarily because feline no-go zones do not exist. There are no areas in the city or any of its suburbs that are run entirely, or even partially, by cats, Persian or otherwise. Cats do not prevent police officers or their canine units from entering Northbrook, and nobody has been beaten or wounded by a cat for wearing clothes or for not having a collar with a small bell on it.
There is no such thing as "feline religious attire," I just made that up. It was in bad taste and I apologize profusely to any humans or cats who may have found it offensive.
I ask the people of the beautiful village of Northbrook to please accept my sincere apology, and I have donated $50 (hey, I don't make "Fox News terrorism analyst" money) to the Heartland Animal Shelter in Northbrook. That part, at least, I am not making up.
Fox News ‘No Go Zone’ Lies Exposed In Most Wonderful Way By French TV Show
Published on Jan 15, 2015 by The Young Turks
"A French TV host this week mocked Fox News for its coverage of Muslim “no-go zones” in France by sending staffers out on the streets to discover how dangerous these places really are. Yann Barthès, the host of Le Petit Journal, showed video of a Fox guest telling Elisabeth Hasselbeck he’s been to some of these areas where non-Muslims supposedly aren’t allowed, and they feel just as dangerous as Iran or Afghanistan.
Barthès referred to them as “Barbie and Ken,” and laughed at them for citing a poll about French support of ISIS that was discredited already by The Washington Post.
And then, Barthès said, the “credibility of the two Fox News clowns disappeared when they showed a map of Paris with some ‘no-go zones.’” And he proceeded to mock Fox by sending staffers out into the streets of these supposedly dangerous areas to find… well… nothing terribly threatening."* The Young Turks host Cenk Uygur breaks it down.
this is part two of a ten-part, and accordingly more accessible (. . .), repost of http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=110400989 -- the "in addition to ..., see also...:" linkings at the end of which are hereby incorporated and will be included again in the final tenth part of this repost -- part three of this repost follows as a reply to this post
7 Siblings Killed In Brooklyn House Fire To Be Buried In Israel
Debris lay scattered behind the house at the scene of a fire in the Brooklyn borough of New York Saturday, March 21, 2015. The fire raged through the residence early Saturday, killing seven children and leaving two other people in critical condition, authorities said. (AP Photo/Craig Ruttle)
By MICHAEL BALSAMO Posted: 03/22/2015 2:20 pm EDT Updated: 1 hour ago
NEW YORK (AP) — An ultra-Orthodox Jewish community shattered by the deaths of seven siblings in a house fire carried out their funerals Sunday, a day after a hot plate left on for the Sabbath is believed to have sparked the fire that killed them.
The tragedy had some neighborhood Jews reconsidering the practice of keeping hot plates on for the Sabbath, a common modern method of obeying tradition prohibiting use of fire on the holy day.
The bodies of the children from the Sassoon family, ages 5 to 16, were being sent to Israel after the funeral for a prompt burial. Flames engulfed their two-story, brick-and-wood home in Brooklyn's Midwood neighborhood early Saturday, likely after a hot plate left on a kitchen counter set off the fire that trapped the children and badly injured their mother and another sibling, investigators said.
The service at the Shomrei Hadas funeral home began with prayers in Hebrew, accompanied by the wailing voices of mourners. They could be heard through speakers that broadcast the rite to hundreds of people gathered outside on the streets in traditional black robes and flat-brimmed hats.
"They were so pure," Gabriel Sassoon said of his children during a eulogy he delivered through sobs. "My wife, she came out fighting."
Both his surviving wife and a daughter — Gayle Sassoon and 14-year-old Siporah Sassoon — remained in critical condition on respirators.
"My children were unbelievable. They were the best," he said, calling them "angels."
Earlier at the family's fire-gutted home on Bedford Avenue, a police officer stood guard as contractors boarded up windows with plywood.
The blaze killed three girls and four boys — all members of the neighborhood's tightknit community of ultra-Orthodox Jews. Authorities identified the victims as girls Eliane, 16; Rivkah, 11; and Sara, 6; and boys David, 12; Yeshua, 10; Moshe, 8; and Yaakob, 5.
"Eliane was a spirited child. Rivkah, she had so much joy," their father said.
Rivkah "gave joy to everybody," he said. "And David, he was so fun."
Yeshua was "always trying to make others happy," as was Yaakob, Sassoon said.
At the time of the fire, Sassoon — a religious education instructor — was in Manhattan at a Shabbaton, an educational retreat.
The hot plate was left on for the Sabbath, which lasts from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday. Many religious Jews use one to keep food warm, obeying the traditional prohibition on use of fire on the holy day as well as work in all forms, including turning on appliances.
The Sassoons' hot plate apparently malfunctioned, setting off flames that tore up the stairs, trapping the children in their second-floor bedrooms as they slept, investigators said.
A neighbor, Karen Rosenblatt, said she called 911 after seeing flames and smoke billowing from the home. Her husband said he heard "what seemed like a young girl scream, 'Help me! Help me!'" she said.
Firefighters arrived in less than four minutes and discovered the badly burned and distraught mother pleading for help, officials said. When they broke in the door, they encountered a raging fire that had spread through the kitchen, dining room, common hall, stairway leading upstairs and the rear bedrooms.
"I couldn't help crying my heart out as I saw the house," said Dalia Hen, 51, a Midwood neighbor. "It's like our own children."
State Assemblyman Dov Hikind, who represents Midwood, said he's hearing from more and more people concerned about use of the hot plates on Sabbath. He said he called his daughter, who has six children and uses a hot plate, and told her, "You've got to stop using that."
"This is an important wakeup call for people, because it may save your life or the life of your children," he said.
Shifra Schorr, 44, a mother of five a few blocks from the Sassoon house, said she and her friends don't use hot plates, but "we're all talking about it."
Across the street from the Sassoon home, 89-year-old Izzy Abade said he'd watched Gayle Sassoon grow up, then her children.
"They used to play right across the street, riding bikes, playing in the backyard, playing ball."
After the funeral, mourners hugged the sides of the SUVs with flashing lights that took the children's bodies — accompanied by their father — to John F. Kennedy International Airport for the flight to Israel.
The family had moved about a year and a half ago from East Jerusalem, a contested part of the city where both Arabs and Jews live.
"There's only one way to survive this," Gabriel Sassoon said of his children's deaths. "There is only total and complete, utter surrender."
Australian "It's time to call out the USA" conservative.
As the latest mass shooting unfolds in California, the former deputy prime minister - who led the charge for tighter gun control laws alongside prime minister John Howard - questioned the "one way" nature of the alliance when the US issued terrorism travel warnings about Australia.
Former deputy prime minister Tim Fischer. Photo: Marina Neil
"Three hundred and fifty two mass shootings in the USA so far this year but about 80 a day you don't hear about," Mr Fischer told ABC News on Thursday.
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