Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal on Monday decried the prospect of so-called “no-go zones,” in which countries supposedly give up local control of certain areas to autonomous Muslim immigrants, days after Fox News issued several corrections in the wake of a guest’s assertion that such areas exist in places like Britain and France.
In an address to the Henry Jackson Society in London, Mr. Jindal said that “in the west, non-assimilationist Muslims establish enclaves and carry out as much of Shariah law as they can without regard for the laws of the democratic countries which provided them a new home,” according to prepared remarks.
“It is startling to think that any country would allow, even unofficially, for a so called ’no-go zone,’” Mr. Jindal said in the remarks. “The idea that a free country would allow for specific areas of its country to operate in an autonomous way that is not free and is in direct opposition to its laws is hard to fathom.”
Asked later on CNN whether he was backing away about his comments on the existence of such areas, Mr. Jindal said, “not at all.”
“And I’m also making a bigger and maybe even more controversial point: that radical Islam is a grave threat, that we need Muslim leaders to denounce the individuals, not just the acts of violence, and also that it is absolutely correct to insist on assimilation,” said Mr. Jindal, whose parents came to the U.S. from India when his mother was pregnant with him.
Western societies have a right to “insist that people coming into our society, into our country adopt our values, adopt our language and understand they’re coming to become” Americans or Britons, he said, going on to note that such assimilation to Western norms and integration in them “is so important if we want to prevent those ’lone wolfs’ and to protect our society against this threat.”
SEE ALSO: In London, Bobby Jindal slams prospect of Muslim ‘no-go zones’
The remarks from the possible 2016 GOP presidential contender came several days after Fox News issued several corrections following comments from terror analyst Steve Emerson in which Mr. Emerson asserted that such areas exist in countries like France and Britain.
Mr. Emerson went on to say that there are cities, like Birmingham in the English Midlands, that are “totally Muslim, where non-Muslims simply just don’t go in,” and parts of London where “Muslim religious police” beat and wound “anyone who doesn’t dress according to religious Muslim attire.”
“To be clear,” Fox host Julie Banderas said Saturday, “there is no formal designation” of these zones in either Britain or France and “no credible information to support the assertion there are specific areas in these countries that exclude individuals based solely on their religion.”
Speaking to CNN Monday, Mr. Jindal cited a local example reported by the Daily Mail and said the bigger point is that “radical Islamists hate our values, threaten our way of life.”
“They don’t appreciate, they don’t condone, they don’t allow freedom of expression, self-determination,” he said. “Anybody that thinks you should be killed for drawing a cartoon obviously is a terrorist, is somebody … we need to get rid of in our societies.”
He went on to say that, regardless of whether no-go zones are formally acknowledged by the state, they can still become informally understood by the society.
“The fact that you’ve got people that … in some cases want to set apart their own enclaves and continue to hold onto their own values — I think that’s dangerous … It’s not a surprise to folks here that there absolutely are areas where people are less likely to go, there are areas where women feel like they have to wear veils.”
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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