MPs and local leaders have reacted angrily to a national newspaper article containing claims there are 'no-go areas' in the North for white men and that parents in Bradford make their children live under Taliban-like rules.

Bradford Council bosses blasted the article as “a wholly inaccurate representation of us”, while one of the city’s MPs dismissed it as “nonsense.”

The controversial article focussed on a new book called Among The Mosques: A Journey Across Muslim Britain, written by author Ed Husain, a professor at Georgetown University in Washington D.C., exploring some of the UK's largest mosques and the Muslim communities worshipping there.

The piece in the Daily Mail says the Muslim author and political advisor, who grew up in London and was radicalised in his youth and trained for Jihad, researched his work for the book by 'turning up unannounced' to communal Friday prayers at central mosques in cities across the country.

It says Mr Husain also had conversations with taxi drivers, business owners, Imams and local white people about mosques and their surrounding communities, painting a picture of segregated and divided communities.

White people in towns across the country told him there are 'no-go areas' where they fear being physically attacked.

The article claimed that, in Bradford, Mr Husain “was amazed by the lack of white English people in the city, and asked a Muslim taxi driver 'where they are'.

The story says he was told they had all 'gone with the wind.'

Dewsbury was one of the areas described as 'a different universe' as he observed 'a Muslim can spend months with no contact with mainstream 'white' Britain'.

He writes that some Muslim parents in Bradford have banned children from taking part in drama, theatre and dance classes as well as drawing, similar to rules implemented by the Taliban in Afghanistan and ISIS in Syria.

Upon visiting a Bradford mosque, he heard a sermon from an Imam who commanded worshippers to avoid the 'innovations of the modern world'.

The author claimed he was warned that Bradford could become 'an apartheid city' within 30 years with a 'pushback against diversity' and 'parties like Nazi Germany organising against immigrant and Muslim populations.'

But Bradford MPs and community leaders have fired back.

Bradford Council Leader Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe said: “This is a wholly inaccurate representation of us. The national newspaper article was distasteful, and presumably written by a London-based journalist with limited knowledge of the North. It appears to base its so-called facts on hearsay and throwaway comments from a handful of people. Anyone who lives or visits Bradford district knows that, across all communities, we are friendly, welcoming and hospitable.”

Imran Hussain, MP for Bradford East, said the article "does nothing more than try to spread hatred, suspicion and division between communities who have over the last 12 months shown us the real strengths of diversity by pulling together to support each other in the face of the coronavirus pandemic."

He added: “This strong, open and welcoming sense of community is the Bradford that I know and love, and the one that is recognised by those who actually live here, but it is sadly all too often forgotten by those who choose to write deliberately divisive pieces such as this which are intended solely to speak to those who already use every opportunity that they can to talk Bradford down.”

Naz Shah, MP for Bradford West, said: “The Daily Mail has stooped to a new level of nonsense by publishing suggestions that areas like Bradford are 'no-go zones'.”

“Despite the nonsense, the recent visit by the royals highlighted the very best of Bradford, our diversity and our unique cultural experience that we are all so proud of.”

Philip Davies, MP for Shipley, said: “Clearly I haven’t read the book but it seems that the author is using extreme imagery in order to make a point, and many people will rightly say that isn’t the Bradford they recognise.

"However, the district is much more segregated than is healthy in terms of communities and schools for example and there is clearly an issue regarding integration. People who criticise the extreme language in this article should not be blind to or complacent about those deep-rooted issues.”