Fox News does it again

[Faith No More]

It was more the fact that he said Birmingham was "completely muslim" that I found amusing. I don't live that far away from Birmingham, stay there reguarly and have never had a problem in any way. There are places in every large british city, with no-go areas and roving gangs of "community representatives" but to say we are being taken over is pure FUD.

Anyone with half a functioning brain(sorry in-laws) in America recognizes that Fox is not legitimate news, and they never, ever let facts get in the way of a good conservative wankfest. They are as legitimate as The Sun only they parade themselves as a legitimate hard news organization, which is all it takes to be a legitimate hard news organization in America.

[Davka]

FOX is pure crap, but I'm gonna take the Devil's Advocate position here, and second what Napoléon wrote.

I've never lived in England, but I did live in Jerusalem, Israel for 7 years, and I've seen the downside of letting the religious fanatics have their way. There are large areas of Jerusalem where you cannot safely walk if you are not "modestly" dressed - long trousers or skirts, long sleeves for women. If you dare walk down the street in these neighborhoods wearing shorts, you will attract an angry mob very quickly. The police have had to rescue clueless tourists more than once. And if you drive past these neighborhoods on Saturday (sabbath), you risk having rocks thrown at your car. Theaters in Jerusalem no longer open on the Sabbath, because the ultra-orthodox have broken windows and torched those who dare to violate "God's day."

The problem is not Judaism, or Islam, or Hinduism, or Christianity. The problem is over-tolerant secular governments allowing religious fanatics to break the law in the name of "freedom of religion." In some ways we're lucky in the USA, because even though the religious idiots are a significant minority here, groups like the ACLU have been vigilant about refusing to allow them to run roughshod over the rest of us. European nations are right to welcome Muslims along with people of other faiths (and no faith), but they are dead wrong to allow de-facto Sharia law in heavily Muslim neighborhoods.

[Napoléon]

Don't confuse the failures of multi-cultural societies with racism.

Yes, Birmingham has problems but for the record (and I didn't hear this off a bloke down the pub) the Demography of Birmingham;

It's the bloke down the pub who experiences these failures every day. I didn't bring up race, you have. There's plenty of white muslims you know.

For the record you'd be more on point to quote Birmingham's religions rather than its demographics:

Birmingham's religions
The city's population estimated at 1,073,045
Christian: 494,358
Muslim: 234,411
Sikh: 32,376
Hindu: 22,362
Buddhist: 4,780
Jewish: 2,205
Other: 5,646
No religion: 206,821
Religion not stated: 70,086

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-30773297

Yes, there are culturally dense areas where a minority culture predominates but they are still under UK Law and that is not going to change any time soon. The vast majority of these culturally dense areas are filled with Law abiding citizens.

All I said is that there are clear areas that are muslim areas. I'm not under any illusion that UK law is changing for Sharia any time soon, again, I didn't say that.

Saying that the vast majority of these areas are filled with law abiding citizens is completely besides the point though. It's not law abiding citizens that beat people up for not being muslim and it's not law abiding citizens that go around at night trying to impose sharia law, it's not the law abiding citizens that plot terrorist attacks in Islamic book stores and it's not the law abiding citizens that take over entire schools and implement Islamic based teachings ahead of the national curriculum.

All of these things have happened in Birmingham.

Just because it might be a small minority doesn't make it any less of a problem. The majority are irrelevant, especially if they don't do anything themselves to address the issue or even speak out about it.

What you're saying about languages is also irrelevant, English is still the main spoken language by British muslims by a long way.

I understand why people bash on that fox news guy. I completely agree what he said was stupid, but the people sitting there afterward pretending like there isn't an issue with multiculturalism in Birmingham is what grinds my gears. He was expressing what a lot of people (those guys down the pub) in Birmingham already feel. As someone who's from Birmingham and who lives there I also feel some of the sentiments those people have. There's a reason why UKIP is doing pretty well recently. I'm not saying I'd vote for people like that but I can understand why the average man down the pub would.

[robvalue]

I totally agree that we should allow people to do whatever stupid crap they want to do, but strictly within the law. I'm against making exceptions for arbitrary religious nonsense.

[Napoléon]

The problem is not Judaism, or Islam, or Hinduism, or Christianity. The problem is over-tolerant secular governments allowing religious fanatics to break the law in the name of "freedom of religion."

Fucking this. A thousand times this!