Leading Republican pressed on British 'no-go zones', fails to name any

Bobby Jindal, the Republican governor of Louisiana, claimed there were "no-go zones" for non-Muslims in British cities in a speech to the libertarian Henry Jackson Society in the House of Commons on Monday.

During his talk, Jindal said it was startling that any country would "allow, even unofficially, for a so-called 'no-go zone.'" But when asked by CNN to name some specific no-go areas in an interview after the speech, Jindal floundered. Here’s a taste of how that conversation went:

Jindal:

Look, I’ve heard it from folks here. There are neighbourhoods where women don’t feel comfortable going in without veils. That’s wrong. We all know there are neighbourhoods where police are less likely to go into those neighbourhoods…

CNN’s Max Foster:

You need to have proper facts to back that up. I’ve lived here a long time, I don’t know of any zones for non-Muslims.

Jindal:

I did say 'so-called no go zones'. I think that the radical left absolutely wants to pretend like this problem’s not here. Pretending it’s not here won’t make it go away.

Foster:

But exaggerating it into a no-go zone is also going too far.

Jindal:

There are people here in London who will tell you there are neighbourhoods where the women don’t feel safe walking through those neighbourhoods without veils. There are neighbourhoods where the police are less likely to go. That’s a dangerous thing.

Foster:

To make an assertion like that you need to give me the area so we can look at it. I haven’t heard of one.

Jindal:

I think your viewers know there are absolutely places where the police are less likely to go. They absolutely know there are neighbourhoods where they wouldn’t feel comfortable, they..

Foster:

That’s high crime rates... It’s not because there are too many Muslims there.

Bobby Jindal:

We’re not saying… Look this isn’t a question. I know the left wants to make this into an attack on religion. That’s not what this is. What we’re saying is this absolutely is an issue for the UK. It absolutely is an issue for America and other European and western nations…

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