Friday, 18 September 2020

Separated By An Ocean And A Language

With the revelation that Donald Trump, President of the United States, and leading nation in NATO apparently didn't know that the United Kingdom was a nuclear power ...

Fox News - Intelligence Source For President Trump?
Fox News - Intelligence Source For Pres Trump?

..... and that we were in fact the third nuclear power, we perhaps shouldn't be surprised by the misconceptions of our country that the US media hold.

We developed our capability independently from the USA, who wouldn't share the technology - despite the fact that British scientists had helped them develop the first Nuclear bomb. In fact our own research was so successful, that the US went back into a nuclear weapons share technology agreement with us, simply in order to tap into our capabilities .... a fact long forgotten in the US.

But amongst some of the US media, there are other things that they misrepresent about the UK. So for example in 2015 a Fox News expert told the US audiences that he believed that the UK has been overrun by Muslims. Steven Emerson its 'expert' said:

"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. So there's a situation that Western Europe is not dealing with."

"No Go Zones" are defined by Fox News (12th January 2015) as “neighbourhoods where neither tourists nor cops dare enter – poor and alienated Muslims have intimidated the government into largely ceding authority over them, prompting fears that the kind of jihad that gave rise to last week’s attack in Paris is festering unchecked.” - so now you know.

Of course, whilst Birmingham has a large Muslim population (21 per cent and rising), and which is larger than their representation across the country, its not 'totally Muslim' ..... he also stated that there are 'no go areas' for non Muslims, which is true in the sense that you might not feel comfortable in them if your not of Pakistani descent, but not because you are physically excluded.

As for London having 'religious police' patrolling areas enforcing Sharia laws .... there have been a few incidents of thugs claiming that they were acting as Islamic police in a area, but they don't control the streets or areas, and are arrested. The incident the expert used to make his sweeping claims was when three members of a so-called 'Muslim Patrol' were jailed at the Old Bailey for repeatedly trying to enforce Sharia law in East London.

Jordan Horner (a convert, thug, and associate of hate preacher Anjem Choudary), and another Islamic extremist, told one couple they could not hold hands while walking down the street, because it was in a 'Muslim area' and near a mosque. The radicals also attacked a group of men drinking in the road, and told a woman she would face 'hell fire' because of the way she was dressed. Horner, Ricardo MacFarlane (another convert), and a 23-year-old man who wasn't named, were sentenced to 68 weeks, 12 months and 24 weeks in prison respectively.

Fox News - Paris No-Go Zones As Dangerous As Iraq and Afghanistan .... Apparently.
Fox News - Paris No-Go Zones As Dangerous
 As Iraq and Afghanistan .... Apparently.

Fox didn't really learn any lessons from this, and in another edition, a journalist, Nolan Peterson, appeared on a Fox news segment aired in the wake of the Charlie Hebdo terror attacks, which asked: “Is France fuelling the rise of radicalism by allowing no-go zones in Muslim neighbourhoods?” .... when asked what it was like to visit the Muslim areas of Paris, Mr Peterson, who was introduced as a “national security analyst”, replied:  
 
“It was pretty scary. I’ve been to Afghanistan and Iraq and Kashmir, India, and at times, it felt like that, those places in these no-go zones. You see young men wearing Osama bin Laden T-shirts in a hookah shop. I saw a speech by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who was leading an insurgency against American troops in Iraq at the time. It seemed very mainstream and very accepted.”  

This report provoked a response in France, with much laughter when people in Paris were asked about the 'no-go zones' (which were described as being Belleville, Boulevard de Magenta, Place de la Republique and Pere Lachaise) .... they actually thought the questions were stupid, with one man saying "This is France".

Sometimes it make you wonder exactly what US news is feeding their population?

Is it that the US networks believe that the population is now so dumbed down by an endless drool of sound-bite TV, movie trailers and adverts every 5 minutes, that as Bart Simpson said, they 'are the children of the MTV generation' and can no longer take anything in anymore?

The number one super power doesn't have to be brighter or better than the rest of the world, but it sure helps if their media and leaders are not idiots! By the way, Mr Emerson later had the good grace to apologise profusely, and said he would make a donation to a Birmingham children's hospital for his “terrible error”. 

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