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Originally Posted by human151
"Mar. 16, 2008 update: John Cornwell, a leading historian and commentator on religion, is generally skeptical of Nazir-Ali's no-go areas but finds that if anyplace fits the profile, it's Bury Park in Luton:
Luton, like other enclaves, has experienced a spate of incidents that look all too like attempts to make Bury Park a no-go area to non-Muslims. Between November of last year and last month there were 18 attacks – all registered by the police – on five non-Muslim homes in the area. One couple, Mr and Mrs Harrop, white residents in their eighties, have had bricks hurled through their windows. The home of Mrs Palmer, a widow of West Indian origin, aged 70, has been attacked four times; on one occasion a metal beer keg crashed through her bay window while she was watching TV."
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18 attacks. On 5 non-Muslim homes.
The population of Bury Park is, I believe, approximately 10,000.
This, of course, is assuming that these particular attacks were instances of "You're not a Muslim, you're not welcome here" or part of some joined-up campaign - none of which has been proven.
DCI Ian Middleton of Bedfordshire police believes the attacks on those 5 non-Muslim homes to be the work of
small groups of white or Muslim extremists, stirring up racial and inter-religious hatred for its own sake.
And boy can I believe that.
Stirring up racial or religious hatred is such a shockingly easy thing to achieve, especially amongst those with a simplistic "them and us" mindset to begin with, that it's surprising there isn't much more of it.
Trust me, Bury Park is no no-go zone for non-Muslims.
I suppose to some people, the very appearance of a large Muslim Pakistani population will - in itself - make for a "no-go zone for non-Muslims". But in that case this was a deeply misleading and mischievous piece of rhetoric, implying a situation far more grave than is actually the case.
That's why the Bishop of Rochester never bothered to cite it as evidence.
And that's why I called it inflammatory.