In the streets of Birmingham - in pictures

The Sparkbrook neighbourhood is a world away from the iconic architecture and shiny shopping centres that define the high-profile regeneration of Britain’s second city.

Inside the Masjid Al Taqwa in Sparkbrook, a man prays.

The city is home to 37 different nationalities and Muslims make up more than 20 per cent of the population, compared to 12 per cent in London.

Mr Emerson’s comments have been both condemned and ridiculed on social media as well as in the mainstream British press, but Birmingham’s association with immigration – and especially immigration from the Muslim world – is well established.

Lord mayor of Birmingham, Shafique Shah, says that singling out his city is unfair and points to the fact that mosques across the city condemned the recent Charlie Hebdo attacks in Paris.

On Sparkbrook’s Stratford Road, views are mixed on whether the Birmingham culture of tolerance and multiculturalism that has been widely praised since Steve Emerson’s comments on Fox News is a reality or simply wishful thinking.

Worshippers leaving the Birmingham Central Mosque.

Since describing Birmingham as a “no-go area” for non-Muslims during a broadcast last month, Fox News pundit Steve Emerson has admitted to never having actually visited the city.

According to Britain’s most recent census in 2011, the population of Birmingham is just over 1 million, of whom 46 per cent describe themselves as Christian, 22 per cent as Muslim and 19 per cent as having no religion.

People of other faiths also live in Birmingham. The National went to the neighbourhood of Sparkbrook in Birmingham to meet some of these people.

All photos by Stephen Lock for The National