The Alarmist and Exploitative Fabrication of 'No Go Zones'

The Daily Mail came under fire for discussing the existence of so-called 'No Go Zones' in certain UK areas, which were claimed to be unsafe for white people to enter due to hostile Muslim community. This is false and perpetuates Islamophobia, yet it has persisted over the last decade.

The article’s, Ed Husain’s, and the media’s discussions of ‘No Go Zones’; Didsbury, Bradford, Blackburn, Dewsbury, and Bolton are framed as factual and academic investigative journalism.

He explores and recounts an apparently “different universe, where a Muslim can spend months with no contact whatsoever with mainstream white Britain.” Using a combination of threats of violence, religious extremism, terrorism, sexism, divide and cultural hostility, Husain, and the article dress Islamophobic, alarmist, and false rhetoric as fact.

Islamophobia is explored by UNHCR as perpetrated and created by British Media. A UN report on the refugee crisis found that Britain’s right-wing media “was uniquely aggressive in its campaigns against refugees and migrants”. This aggressiveness creates both an acceptability, market, and excuse for the “media’s favourite racism: bigotry against Muslims.”

The Conservative Party has also been examined by HOPE Not Hate as having deep roots in Islamophobia. Their past 12 years in power are un-coincidentally coinciding with a rising anti-Muslimism sentiment. Distrust in diverse communities has been exacerbated by Brexit campaigns, migrant policies, and migrant political coverage. There is a high correlation between Brexit support and conservative voting. Nigel Farage and Brexit Campaigns harnessed racism and Islamophobia to stir up division and further the Brexit Agenda. Farage’s anti-migrant “Breaking Point” poster was an image of the referendum where they promised border control – “if you open your door to uncontrolled immigration from Middle Eastern countries you are inviting in terrorism”. Such statements inflame and exploit serious issues: high crime, underfunding, low education, social unrest, and high unemployment. It simultaneously creates a fear of these issues and a scapegoat for them.

This aids the spread of white nationalist extremism by creating oven-ready 'political' justifications for extremist, xenophobic, Islamophobic, and alarmist fabrication – support for the far-right Islamophobia activist Tommy Robinson (Stephen Lennon) correlates with ‘leave’ voters and the apparent location of No Go Zones. Are right-wing and far-right dogmas creating the very conditions they complain about and condemn Muslim communities for? We must question: Do the far-right aim to rectify concerns in a community, or create them?

Husain, The Daily Mail, and the British Media are ‘fanning’ these ‘flames of Islamophobia' by projecting a ‘radical conception of secularism’ onto communities through lies and propaganda.

In the article, Husain quotes ‘Mahfuz Alimain, a senior official at Manchester Council’:

“Killings are normal for them (migrants). Peace in Manchester troubles them; they feel they need to seek revenge and justice.”

Manchester City Council, after being questioned on the employee, confirmed “we don't employ a Mahfuz Alimain, nor…have any record of having employed anyone of this name." Not only does this prove the dishonest roots of Islamophobia and media, but it also pulls into question where this sentiment and quote come from. As a figment of Husain's imagination, we cannot help but assume that this is his personal prejudiced opinion coming out. The prejudice from which he is writing, speaking, and observing - creates bias, confirmation bias, and fabrication.

Whilst other people and experiences cannot be fact-checked, the outright fabrication and projection of such an inflammatory lie impose incredibility upon the whole article, No Go Zones, and correlating views. Despite the article claiming, “a gang of 'Asian' teenagers repeatedly 'jumped’” a 12-year-old, a google search containing combinations of ‘Blackburn, Asian, jumped, beaten, 12-year-old’ creates no report of such occurrence; most of the results concern attacks on Asian men.

Other fabrications of the text include the words and opinions put in the mouth of the Muslim communities – that they don’t want to integrate or include others. However, the websites of the mosques in these areas advertise the opposite. Bradford Mosque offers tours and visits to schools, and posts enthusiastically about visits from such groups on their Instagram. The British Muslim Heritage Centre in Whalley Range (apparently a no-go zone where “supporters of the killer of Salman Taseer and supporters of Pakistan's blasphemy laws, advertising their propaganda and gender segregation”) hosts Taekwondo Classes (Sisters Only), Ladies Qur-an Tafseer Classes, and an International Women’s Day event. Their vision is ‘Fostering good relations between Muslims and other faith groups including non-faith communities.' On Didsbury Mosque’s website they have a section named ‘Questions about Islam’, advertise their ‘open door policy,’ and state their mission as ‘providing the optimal Islamic environment for worship, education, counselling, and social activities, we seek to enable British Muslims excel and contribute positively towards enriching the UK community’. They encourage in a newsletter ‘a least one Islamic activity with your family such as cooking food for the poor.’ These are not establishments that would create or promote the ‘divided community’ that the article describes, where it is a “sin to be attracted to the customs of the kuffar (nonbelievers.)” All these establishments in No Go Zones encourage education and collaboration and discourage fear, resentment, and hostility. The alarmist notion of No Go Zones keeps Mosques from their potential to be community hubs of involvement and cultural exchange.

Lies about Muslim Communities create the reality that in HOPE Not Hate’s 2018’s poll of over 5,000 people, 30% said that they would support a campaign to stop the building of a mosque near where they live. 21% said they would still support the campaign if either side became violent. The hostility, threat, and violence are not coming from Muslim communities and the mosques themselves – but they are the subject of such.

Combatting the fabrication of No Go Zones lies in letting Muslim Communities speak for themselves instead of imposing beliefs (unavoidably influenced by Islamophobic media, political scapegoats, and social unrest) on them.