Just maybe Fox wasn't completely wrong?
That guy was partially right. There ARE Islamic ghettos in many Western European cities, including British ones, which are no-go areas for filthy kuffars, but Birmingham isn't one of them. Most Brummies are Christians, and around 21% are Muzzies.
The REAL Islamic no-go areas are in places like Leicester, Bradford, Blackburn, Tower Hamlets and Luton. These places are just Islamic republics in which "Muslim patrols" ban people from drinking alcohol on the streets.
On last night's Sky News newspaper review, the Daily's Mirror's Kevin Maguire and his politically opposite pal Andrew Pierce of the Daily Mail - the "Odd Couple of Fleet Street" - were saying that this guy is just your typical thick American, and Pierce pointed out that most Americans don't carry passports and have a fairly limited understanding of the wider world outside America (and that female American newsreader he was talking to looked just like your typical American female newsreader, glammed up to the eyeballs and with more makeup than Boots).
What do Americans really think it's like in Britain?
The Fox News claim that Birmingham is a "totally Muslim" city throws new light on the divide between the US and Britain - and reminds us that it's a not-so special relationship after all
Americans still see Britain as the land of peasoupers and gents in bowlers, along with other clichés culled from 'Mary Poppins' Photo: The Kobal Collection
By Toby Young
13 Jan 2015
The Telegraph
883 Comments
I sympathise with the people of
Birmingham. It must be galling to discover that so little is known about your hometown in America that a “terrorism expert” can appear on national television and describe it as
a “totally Muslim” city where “non-Muslims simply don’t go”. That claim was made on Sunday on Fox News by Steve Emerson, self-proclaimed terrorism expert and founder of The Investigative Project on Terrorism.
But Brummies can take some comfort from the fact that at least Emerson had heard of their city and knew it was in England. My wife, who lived in New York for a year in her twenties, got a blank look when she told the man running the boxing class at her gym that she was from London. “Is that in Australia?” he asked.
Birmingham is, amongst other things, the hometown of heavy metallers Black Sabbath
British visitors to America often report how shocked they are to discover how little is know about their country. It’s not that Americans get their facts wrong, although they often do (more about that later). It’s that they rarely think about Britain at all. For the vast majority of Americans, we’re simply not on their radar.
I found this out when I spent a year at Harvard as a Fulbright scholar in the late 80s. I remember being at a drinks party organised by the Government Department to welcome their overseas visitor and thinking it would be a good icebreaker to ask members of the faculty what they thought of “the special relationship”. Without exception, none of them knew what I was talking about – including the professor of international relations at the Kennedy School. “We regard our relationship with all our allies as 'special’,” he said, before turning to a young woman from Belize.
In subsequent conversations with Americans, I would sometimes take the trouble to explain the term, with particular reference to Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan. This would produce an indulgent smile, as if I was confessing to a “crush”. If I pressed the point, referring to our two countries’ shared language and values, they became a little wary and I could sense an alarm going off (stalker alert, stalker alert…). I’m sure President Obama had a similar reaction when David Cameron boasted that he calls him “bro”. I daresay he calls the man who polishes his shoes every morning “bro” as well, but he has the good sense not to read too much into it.
Insofar as Americans think of our country at all, it is the Britain of George the Third and the Boston Tea Party (although when The Madness of George III was released in America, it had to be renamed The Madness of King George so cinema-goers wouldn’t think it was a sequel). This was brought home to me in 1995 when I went back to the States to work for
Vanity Fair. I happened to fly into JFK on July 4th – Independence Day – and the famous Manhattan skyline was lit up by fireworks. I turned to my fellow passenger, a gentleman called Bryce, and told him that news of my arrival must have reached my hosts in advance.
“It’s true what they say,” I joked, gesturing towards the fireworks. “You really are a welcoming people.”
“Doncha know what’s happening here?” he said. “We’re celebrating the fact that we got rid of you people.”
Rather than regard Britain as an important strategic partner, most Americans think of us as their former masters – and it’s as if they threw off the yoke of Hanoverian oppression last week, not 239 years ago. The average American regards himself as a plucky little underdog and to buttress that self-image it’s important to keep the country’s colonial past alive. That explains why Brits are so often cast as villains in Hollywood films. Having said that, I once asked the actor Alan Rickman about this – he played the baddie in Die Hard – and he had a different explanation. “It’s because we can act, dear boy,” he said.
Alan Rickman playing the baddie in 'Die Hard' (Rex)
Those Britons who conform to the colonial governor stereotype are much more likely to succeed in America – and not just on the West Coast. During the five years I spent in New York, I came across far more British aristocrats than I ever have in London, and even those limeys from humble stock often behaved as if they were first cousins of Marie Antoinette. (I remember going to a fancy dress party hosted by Kate Moss and being surprised to discover an army of dwarves running around. It turned out she’d come to the party as Snow White and hired the dwarves to complement her costume.)
The alternative was to behave like a
stage cockney from the Dick Van Dyke tradition, and, almost as common as faux aristocrats, were public schoolboys talking in a London “street” slang that doesn’t exist outside Guy Ritchie films. During my time in New York, I came across dozens of these types, nearly all of them working for large investment banks on Wall Street. They’d figured out that the key to success across the pond is to conform to an Upstairs Downstairs view of Britain in which you’re either at the top or the bottom of the social pyramid. If you were somewhere in the middle, like me, Americans simply couldn’t work you out. Graydon Carter, the editor of Vanity Fair, once told me I was like a British person born in New Jersey - that is, ordinary rather than a pantomime Brit from central casting.
One mistake I repeatedly made was to correct Americans’ misunderstandings about “the old country”. For instance, I always bridled when members of the American media referred to the Times as “the Times of London”. They just took it for granted that because their Times had “New York” in its title, ours had “London”. Not surprisingly, they weren’t at all grateful when I pointed this out, any more than they were when I said no one other than Americans referred to Tony Blair as “Prime Minister Blair”. My friend Chris Ayres, then the Times’s LA correspondent, took a much more sensible approach. He had business cards printed with “the Times of London” embossed on them in large, black letters.
A businessman wearing a bowler hat and reading the Financial Times (Rex)
Not to say that the impression most Brits have of the States is any more accurate, in spite of our stalker-like obsession. One common mistake is to assume that America is a more “classless” society than ours. Not true if you look at the data on social mobility. If you’re born in the bottom income decile in the United States, your chances of ending up in the top decile are lower than they are in the United Kingdom. Far from being the land of opportunity, America is second from bottom in the social mobility league table, just above Brazil.
We also have a distorted view of just how libertarian America is. When asked about polygamy in a 2008 survey, 58 per cent of Britons thought it was legal in some parts of the USA. In fact, polygamy is illegal in all 50 American states, including Utah. By the same token, 31 per cent of Britons in the same survey thought Americans are not entitled to emergency medical care if they haven’t paid their insurance premiums. In fact, all Americans have a legal right to emergency treatment – and that pre-dates the introduction of Obamacare.
A man guiding a London bus through thick fog with a flaming torch during the 1952 Great Smog of London (Getty)
The other thing to say in defence of Americans’ distorted view of Britain is that it isn’t always a million miles from the truth. The terrorism expert who described Birmingham as a no-go area for non-Muslims was quick to apologise, but he could have pointed out that there are several parts of the city where whites fear for their safety at night – a finding of a 2009 report for the Department for Communities and Local Government. Not long ago, Christians from all over the country held a rally in Birmingham after a West Midlands Police Community Support Officer told two locals that preaching the Gospel in the Muslim-dominated Alum Rock area was a “hate crime” and they risked being beaten up if they continued.
I returned to New York in 2008 to be a judge on a food reality show and abandoned any attempt to buck the stereotype. Instead, I played the part of a cad straight out of Downton Abbey and was named “Reality Villain of the Year” by the New York Post. If there are any Muslim Brummies heading to America, I advise them to make a B-line for Fox News, where they can explain how they turned their city into an IS-style caliphate. They’ll soon be on their way to Hollywood.
Birmingham facts
Birmingham is the UK's second-biggest city.
In Anglo-Saxon, Birmingham means home (ham) of the people (ing) of the tribal leader Birm or Beorma.
The city has more miles of canals than Venice.
Birmingham's first canal was opened in 1769 and linked Birmingham to Wednesbury. There are many locks on the canals including the famous Guillotine Lock in Kings Norton, which was used to control the flow of water between canals owned by different companies.
Birmingham is home to Cadbury's Chocolate. George and his brother Richard Cadbury moved their successful chocolate manufacturing business from Bull Street, Birmingham to Bournville in 1879.
Built as part of The ICC in 1991, Symphony Hall is the home of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra.
Victoria Square hosts one of the largest fountains in Europe, with a flow of 3,000 gallons per minute. It is officially known as 'The River'.
Bingley Hall, the world's first exhibition hall, opened in 1850 on the site now occupied by The ICC
Alec Issigonis was one of the most colourful car designers of modern times. He went on to design the world famous, Birmingham- made 'Mini', which started production in 1959 at Longbridge, Birmingham and is still in production today.
Birmingham is home to the historic Bull Ring - site of a market for more than 800 years. Within the complex are five retail markets attracting around 20 million customers a year.
Two miles from Birmingham city centre is one of the biggest motorway junctions in Europe: Gravelly Hill Interchange, known as 'Spaghetti Junction' to millions of motorists.
Spaghetti Junction
Soho House is the elegant home of industrial pioneer Matthew Boulton, who lived there from 1766 to 1809. Boulton, in partnership with James Watt, developed and patented the steam engine at the nearby but now demolished Soho Factory.
William Murdock, who worked for Boulton and Watt at Soho in the Handsworth area of Birmingham, invented gas lighting. His cottage at Soho Foundry was the first domestic building in the world to be lit by gas (1798 ).
James Watt, who lived in Birmingham 1775-1819, developed the steam engine. Through it, the firm Boulton and Watt sold the industrial revolution to the world. Watt also invented the letter copying machine, forerunner of the photocopier. His name stays in our vocabulary through the lightbulb measurement - 60 Watts, 40 Watts, etc.
X-Ray photography for medical purposes was pioneered by Major John Hall Edwards; he took the world's first x-ray in Birmingham in 1896.
Curzon Street Station, Digbeth, Birmingham, was the terminus of the London and Birmingham Railway, with a station built by Philip Hardwick in 1838, who designed the original Euston Station in London, too.
Birmingham's twin cities include Chicago (USA), Frankfurt (Germany), Johannesburg (South Africa), Leipzig (Germany), Lyon (France) and Milan (Italy).
Birmingham's Centenary Square is made up of more than half a million individual bricks - all hand laid!
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/11340482/What-do-Americans-really-think-its-like-in-Britain.html
