Ed Husain was, along with Maajid Nawaz, a co-founder of the now defunct Quilliam organisation. Like Nawaz, he had links to groups like Hizb ut-Tahrir. And like Nawaz, he has had no problem getting himself noticed by the kinds of media outlets whose modus operandi includes frightening readers witless about all those Scary Muslims™.
Ed Husain
So it was that
Mail Online lapped up Husain’s new book
Among the Mosques: A Journey Across Muslim Britain. The headline, as is customary with the
Mail titles,
tells readers what to think. “
British towns that are no-go areas for white people: Muslim author's study of mosques reveals children 'attacked for being white', parents making families live under Taliban-like rules and women who can't leave home without permission”.
Ah, the old “
No Go Areas” ploy. This claim is backed up by no facts whatsoever: Husain takes the word of two white men in Blackburn as fact and appears not to bother verifying it. Moreover, it seems no-one at
Mail Online wants their name on this particular by-line, and so the piece is attributed simply to “
Mail Online Reporter”.
Why that might be can be seen from the pushback to Husain’s claims, not least that the roll-call of “
no go areas” includes the increasingly affluent, trendy (and 88% white) Manchester suburb of Didsbury, an inclusion that has brought ridicule raining down on both Husain and
Mail Online. “
Didsbury is apparently a 'no go area for white people'. Cutting around it is like being on the set of a Richard Curtis movie” was one comment.
Hannah al-Othman added “
Even a 30-second Google would reveal that the only thing that Didsbury is a no-go zone for is non-organic produce”. As for Blackburn having a no-go area, well: “
The only no go area in Blackburn is Next when the sale is on or a busy Primark”. Then came the idea that Muslim somehow equals extremism.
Former chief prosecutor Nazir Afzal made the obvious point: “
With respect to author whose ‘research’ this is, as someone who actually lives ‘up north’ & regularly interacts with all these communities - this is a load of dangerous rubbish … I can talk to all types of extremists & guess what, paint an extreme picture … There are NO No-Go zones”.
As for Husain’s book, Sameer Rahim from Prospect magazine
was unimpressed. “
A curiosity this. Among the Mosques has (so far) garnered quite a few positive notices. But it is, by some distance, the worst book I have reviewed in nearly 20 years as a critic - at times laughable, at others frankly sinister”. And he homed in on one particular point.
“
A book that seriously suggests deportation is an option for British Muslims if they don’t ‘modernise, integrate’ etc should have no place in respectable discussion. Or, I might add, a respectable publisher like [Bloomsbury]”. But Husain did garner approval from Colin Brazier of GB News, which tells you all you need to know about the new broadcast entrant - it’s going to bash Muslims and Rotten Lefties™. While claiming to be impartial.
OH WHAT A GIVEAWAY
Ed Husain is attracting significant ridicule already. But as his book, and its claims, are what the right-leaning media establishment want to hear, he’ll be quids in very soon.
Just when you thought the Muslim bashing had died down, the bigots get an excuse to fire it up again. Still, makes a change from blaming all ills on the EU.
Mustn’t grumble.
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This bullshit just reinforces to me that our press is in such a crap condition that for it to continue, the just thing would be for newspaper articles to back up their claims with references as like an peer reviewed academic paper!
ReplyDeleteMail are wankers for trying to abuse fear and create hatred like this.
Absolute scumbags.
Colin Brazier - another Gammon Bastard Nazi (GBN), the news of the National Front.
ReplyDeleteIt has been claimed and denied that two of the 7/7 bombers had said prayers at Didsbury and Andrew Norfolk has it in for the place so, it ticks boxes for intolerants who say that they're anti-intolerant.
ReplyDeleteEd Hussain's book has had a favourable review in The Economist's 'Bagehot' column stating it to be a fascinating addition to works such as J.B. Priestley’s “English Journey” (1934), George Orwell’s “The Road to Wigan Pier” (1937) and Bill Bryson's “Notes from a Small Island” (1995). WTF!
Goebbels and Streicher would have loved this era.
ReplyDeleteAfter all, they did all the advance ground work.
Another tool paid by American neocons and pro-Isreali interest groups to spout shite.
ReplyDeleteBellingcat comprehensively demolished the notion of “No Go Areas” in London’s famous London back in 2018: https://www.bellingcat.com/news/uk-and-europe/2018/11/09/debunking-maps-alleged-islamic-no-go-zones-london-2/ This Unit has lived in one of them for more than thirty years without once being chased off the street by a gang of Scary Muslims
ReplyDeleteBizarrely, “No Go Zones: How Sharia Law Is Coming to a Neighborhood Near You” by Zelo Street favourite “Call Me Ray“ Kassam (foreward by Nigel Fartrage) still gets four and a half stars on Amazon. What are the odds that it too is unadulterated bum gravy?
Another new RW grifter..
ReplyDelete