#FoxNewsFacts: Twitter users react with aplomb to news that Birmingham is a 'no-go zone' for 'non-Muslims'

Social media users were not slow to criticise Fox's 'terror expert' Steve Emerson

Birmingham is a 'totally Muslim' place where 'non-Muslims just simply don’t go', a self-proclaimed terrorism expert told the US Fox News channel, sparking a tidal wave of mockery (You Tube)

Talk about poking a tiger. Steve Emerson, a so-called ‘terrorism expert’, got slightly more publicity than he intended after claiming on Fox News that Birmingham was “totally Muslim” and a “no-go zone” for non-Muslims.

In no great surprise to anyone, the Twittersphere rose up and amusingly proceeded to educate him (and Fox News) with the hashtag #foxnewsfacts.

Birmingham is home to just over a million people, of which roughly 46 per cent identify as Christian and just over 20 per cent identify as Muslim, according to the 2011 census.

Mr Emerson, author of six books and a documentary on ‘Jihad in America’, has been forced to issue a grovelling apology to Birmingham’s residents and has pledged a donation to the Birmingham Children’s Hospital.

It is not the first time the ‘terrorism expert’ has been accused of inaccurate in his reporting. Mr Emerson has been accused of being a "misinformation expert" by the liberal advocacy group Centre for American Progress.

Here are some of our favourites:

As the hashtag gathered pace, even Mr Emerson's apology was taken apart by amused social media users: