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| Fox News Apologizes for False Claims of Muslim-Only Areas in England and France | Fox News Apologizes for False Claims of Muslim-Only Areas in England and France |
| (about 17 hours later) | |
| Fox News issued an unusual on-air apology on Saturday night for having allowed its anchors and guests to repeat the false claim that there are Muslim-only “no-go zones” in European countries like England and France that are not under the control of the state and are ruled according to Shariah law. | Fox News issued an unusual on-air apology on Saturday night for having allowed its anchors and guests to repeat the false claim that there are Muslim-only “no-go zones” in European countries like England and France that are not under the control of the state and are ruled according to Shariah law. |
| The statement was referred to as “a correction” by the Fox Report host Julie Banderas, who said that “over the course of this last week, we have made some regrettable errors on air regarding the Muslim population in Europe, particularly with regard to England and France.” | The statement was referred to as “a correction” by the Fox Report host Julie Banderas, who said that “over the course of this last week, we have made some regrettable errors on air regarding the Muslim population in Europe, particularly with regard to England and France.” |
| “Now this applies especially to discussions of so-called no-go zones, areas where non-Muslims allegedly are not allowed in and police supposedly won’t go,” Ms. Banderas continued. “To be clear, there is no formal designation of these zones in either country and no credible information to support the assertion that there are specific areas in these countries that exclude individuals based solely on their religion.” | “Now this applies especially to discussions of so-called no-go zones, areas where non-Muslims allegedly are not allowed in and police supposedly won’t go,” Ms. Banderas continued. “To be clear, there is no formal designation of these zones in either country and no credible information to support the assertion that there are specific areas in these countries that exclude individuals based solely on their religion.” |
| The claim that such areas existed attracted widespread attention, and a wave of online derision, last weekend when Steve Emerson, a self-described expert on Islamist terrorism, told the Fox News host Jeanine Pirro that parts of France and the entire English city of Birmingham “are totally Muslim where non-Muslims just simply don’t go in.” Mr. Emerson said such areas also included parts of London, Sweden and Germany, and he claimed, “You basically have zones where Shariah courts were set up, where Muslim density is very intense, where the police don’t go in, and where it’s basically a separate country almost, a country within a country.” | The claim that such areas existed attracted widespread attention, and a wave of online derision, last weekend when Steve Emerson, a self-described expert on Islamist terrorism, told the Fox News host Jeanine Pirro that parts of France and the entire English city of Birmingham “are totally Muslim where non-Muslims just simply don’t go in.” Mr. Emerson said such areas also included parts of London, Sweden and Germany, and he claimed, “You basically have zones where Shariah courts were set up, where Muslim density is very intense, where the police don’t go in, and where it’s basically a separate country almost, a country within a country.” |
| Although Mr. Emerson was shamed into issuing a public apology to the people of Britain for what he called “sloppy research that had not been fact-checked” after a campaign of ridicule from British Twitter users, the news channel’s press office initially made no apology, and argued that it was inaccurate to call this an error by a “Fox News pundit,” since he was not a member of its staff. | Although Mr. Emerson was shamed into issuing a public apology to the people of Britain for what he called “sloppy research that had not been fact-checked” after a campaign of ridicule from British Twitter users, the news channel’s press office initially made no apology, and argued that it was inaccurate to call this an error by a “Fox News pundit,” since he was not a member of its staff. |
| Ms. Pirro also issued a brief apology for not correcting Mr. Emerson last weekend. | Ms. Pirro also issued a brief apology for not correcting Mr. Emerson last weekend. |
| The broader apology on Saturday, read by Ms. Banderas, came after a week of pressure from a French television host, Yann Barthès, whose comedic news program “Le Petit Journal,” found example after example of the claim being made again and again by anchors and guests on other Fox News programs. | The broader apology on Saturday, read by Ms. Banderas, came after a week of pressure from a French television host, Yann Barthès, whose comedic news program “Le Petit Journal,” found example after example of the claim being made again and again by anchors and guests on other Fox News programs. |
| Mr. Barthès even sent a crew to several areas of Paris identified on a map by Fox as “no-go zones” to ask residents if their neighborhoods really did resemble Iraq and Afghanistan, as a guest on “Fox & Friends” had suggested. | Mr. Barthès even sent a crew to several areas of Paris identified on a map by Fox as “no-go zones” to ask residents if their neighborhoods really did resemble Iraq and Afghanistan, as a guest on “Fox & Friends” had suggested. |
| French viewers of “Le Petit Journal” were also encouraged to flood the inboxes of Fox News executives, demanding an apology. | French viewers of “Le Petit Journal” were also encouraged to flood the inboxes of Fox News executives, demanding an apology. |
| Though Mr. Emerson refused to identify the source of his incorrect information about autonomous, Muslim-ruled areas of Europe to a BBC interviewer, the Twitter feed of his Investigative Project on Terrorism appears to offer some clues. | Though Mr. Emerson refused to identify the source of his incorrect information about autonomous, Muslim-ruled areas of Europe to a BBC interviewer, the Twitter feed of his Investigative Project on Terrorism appears to offer some clues. |
| On Jan. 7, hours after the deadly attack on the offices of the French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo in Paris, Mr. Emerson and the Fox News host Sean Hannity had a lengthy discussion of how, they said, Islamic extremism was rampant in parts of France outside of state control. " ‘No-go zone,’ ” Mr. Hannity asserted as a matter of fact, “means no non-Muslims, no police, no fire, their own court system. So basically these countries have allowed Muslims to take over parts of their country, entire portions, towns.” | On Jan. 7, hours after the deadly attack on the offices of the French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo in Paris, Mr. Emerson and the Fox News host Sean Hannity had a lengthy discussion of how, they said, Islamic extremism was rampant in parts of France outside of state control. " ‘No-go zone,’ ” Mr. Hannity asserted as a matter of fact, “means no non-Muslims, no police, no fire, their own court system. So basically these countries have allowed Muslims to take over parts of their country, entire portions, towns.” |
| Two days later, when France’s ambassador to the United States, Gérard Araud, took issue with Mr. Emerson’s claims on Twitter, his organization cited a French government list of disadvantaged neighborhoods, known as “Sensitive Urban Zones,” and a report on France from Russian state television, which is not known for its objective assessment of living conditions in the West. | Two days later, when France’s ambassador to the United States, Gérard Araud, took issue with Mr. Emerson’s claims on Twitter, his organization cited a French government list of disadvantaged neighborhoods, known as “Sensitive Urban Zones,” and a report on France from Russian state television, which is not known for its objective assessment of living conditions in the West. |
| The French Interior Ministry list of 751 disadvantaged urban areas in need of extra economic and social help cited by Mr. Emerson’s group is not new; it was created in 1996 in accordance with an urban renewal law. A decade later, in 2006, the conservative commentator Daniel Pipes, a self-declared watchdog of militant Islam, first drew attention to it in a blog post headlined, “The 751 No-Go Zones of France.” In that post, Mr. Pipes insisted that this was proof of “places in France that the French state does not fully control.” | The French Interior Ministry list of 751 disadvantaged urban areas in need of extra economic and social help cited by Mr. Emerson’s group is not new; it was created in 1996 in accordance with an urban renewal law. A decade later, in 2006, the conservative commentator Daniel Pipes, a self-declared watchdog of militant Islam, first drew attention to it in a blog post headlined, “The 751 No-Go Zones of France.” In that post, Mr. Pipes insisted that this was proof of “places in France that the French state does not fully control.” |
| In an appearance on Fox on Jan. 10, after 17 people were killed by Islamist gunmen in three days of attacks in Paris, another American expert, Nolan Peterson, told Elisabeth Hasselbeck there were indeed Muslim-dominated “no-go zones” around France, even if he seemed to slightly misremember the number bandied about since Mr. Pipes injected it into the conservative blogosphere. There were, Mr. Peterson said, 741 of these “pretty scary” areas, which reminded him, “at times,” of places in Afghanistan and Iraq where he had seen combat with the Air Force. | |
| After the term attracted new attention last week, Mr. Pipes added an update to his original 2006 post to share the credit for it with an anti-Islamist Norwegian blogger who wrote under the pen name Fjordman. That blogger, whose work was cited 111 times in the manifesto of Anders Behring Breivik — the Islamophobic terrorist behind the deadly attacks in Oslo in 2011 — claimed in a post on his blog in 2006 that those underpriveleged areas of France were “Muslim no-go zones where anything representing a Western institution (post office truck, firemen, even mail order delivery firms) was routinely ambushed with Molotov cocktails.” | After the term attracted new attention last week, Mr. Pipes added an update to his original 2006 post to share the credit for it with an anti-Islamist Norwegian blogger who wrote under the pen name Fjordman. That blogger, whose work was cited 111 times in the manifesto of Anders Behring Breivik — the Islamophobic terrorist behind the deadly attacks in Oslo in 2011 — claimed in a post on his blog in 2006 that those underpriveleged areas of France were “Muslim no-go zones where anything representing a Western institution (post office truck, firemen, even mail order delivery firms) was routinely ambushed with Molotov cocktails.” |
| As the term was repeated again and again on Fox News after the Paris attacks, Mr. Araud said that the interpretation of this document promoted by Mr. Pipes and Mr. Emerson was a “ridiculous” distortion. | As the term was repeated again and again on Fox News after the Paris attacks, Mr. Araud said that the interpretation of this document promoted by Mr. Pipes and Mr. Emerson was a “ridiculous” distortion. |
| In recent days, the ambassador, who controls his own Twitter account and makes a point of trying to correct the false information of critics he encounters on the social networks, continued his perhaps quixotic attempt to tweet some sense into America’s cable news channels. | In recent days, the ambassador, who controls his own Twitter account and makes a point of trying to correct the false information of critics he encounters on the social networks, continued his perhaps quixotic attempt to tweet some sense into America’s cable news channels. |
| By Sunday, however, Mr. Araud was at least able to celebrate a minor victory for the facts, by pointing to the apology from Fox News. | By Sunday, however, Mr. Araud was at least able to celebrate a minor victory for the facts, by pointing to the apology from Fox News. |