Donald Trump repeats myth that London and Paris contain ‘Muslim no-go areas’
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has defended his controversial comments proposing a ban on all Muslims from entering the US as there are places in London where police officers “are scared for their lives” because of radicalisation.
The billionaire tycoon has been criticised from both sides of the presidential election campaign as well 10 Downing Street for his comments calling for a “total and complete shutdown” of Muslims entering the US, including tourists and US citizens returning to their own country, in the wake of the Paris terror attacks and San Bernardino shootings in California.
Trump repeated the comments at a rally in South Carolina to a rousing applause, adding: “We have no choice.” Despite being condemned by Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, David Cameron and rival Republican candidates Jeb Bush and Ben Carson, the 69-year-old refused to back down from his proposal if he was elected president.
Speaking to MSNBC, Trump said that people attacking his comments were “afraid of the other side, not my side”. “Look at what happened in Paris and the horrible carnage,” he said. “If you look at Paris [it’s] no longer the same city it was They have sections in Paris which are radicalised where they police refuse to go there because they’re petrified. We have places in London and other places that are so radicalised the police are afraid for their own lives. We have to be very smart and very vigilant.”
Trump appeared to defend his stance by repeating a much ridiculed claim by Fox News pundit Steven Emerson in January 2015, in the wake of the Charlie Hebdo massacre in Paris, that Birmingham, the second-biggest city in the UK, was a “totally Muslim” city where “non-Muslims simply don’t go in”.
Reality
This is, by far, one of the most bigoted statements Trump, or any other politician, has made in my lifetime. The lies used to push a nationalistic agenda places him in history among the likes of France’s National Front.
And about those no-go zones Fox News reported on:
Hell, even Fox News apologized for their lie about the no-go zones in Paris.