Muslim No-Go Story Started Here

Steve Emerson, the supposed “expert” whose claim that Birmingham was a totally Muslim city where non-Muslims “just don’t go” was given a free ride by Fox News Channel (fair and balanced my arse), and which provoked mockery that is still going on, subjected himself to the inquisition of BBC Radio 4’s PM programme yesterday afternoon. He expressed contrition for his comments about the city.

However, and here we encounter a significantly sized however, he did not resile from his assertion that there were Muslim “no-go” areas in Britain, and specifically in London, as well as asserting that there were many more such areas in France and Germany. While Emerson was guarding his sources carefully, it is not difficult to see where he might be looking. And where he might be looking starts right here in the UK.

Emerson has a steady stream of material telling him what he wants to hear right on his doorstep: the Gatestone Institute, fronted by the likes of John “Wiggy” Bolton, former US ambassador to the UN, is more than ready to tell anyone listening that “Islamic extremists are stepping up the creation of ‘no-go’ areas in European cities that are off-limits to non-Muslims”. That was back in 2011.

Not prejudiced against Muslims at all

Gatestone also talks about “The Islamic Republic of Tower Hamlets”, the exact same pejorative title used by Andrew “Transcription Error” Gilligan in one of his many Muslim bashing exercises. The Gatestone post on “no-go” areas uses the word “Londonistan” to describe the capital. This equally pejorative term was coined by another of their sources, Melanie “not just Barking but halfway to Upminster” Phillips.

Definitely not fair and balanced

Both these less than august beings have been there: Gilligan told that “I was offered the ‘Muslim patrol’ story in Tower Hamlets, where self-proclaimed ‘Muslim vigilantes’ filmed themselves verbally abusing and intimidating a gay man. Perhaps wrongly, I didn’t use it”, while Mel talked rather earlier of “Another no-go area in Londonistan”. But Gatestone has a yet more potent source of prejudicial drivel.

Bigotry? He wouldn't dream of it. Asterisk

And that source, whose work the Institute promotes alongside that of people like Geert Wilders, is Douglas Murray, who two years ago told of “No-go Britain” at the Spectator, once again flogging the story of a few self-appointed thugs in east London for rather more than it was worth. On the same magazine’s website, he also passed severely adverse comment on the birth rate in Muslim communities.

“There are certain things in Britain about which it is impossible to speak frankly. The birth rate of the Muslim population is a prime subject” he told. Just think what kind of reception he would have received had he used “Jewish” instead of “Muslim”. That’s on top of asserting that “Conditions for Muslims in Europe must be made harder across the board”. Now the bigotry of Doug Murray The K is being exported and cited as fact on Fox News.

Andy, Doug and Mel have said nothing about Steve Emerson. No surprise there, then.