Mail Online has been forced to pay a British Muslim family a total of £150,000 after columnist Katie Hopkins wrongly accused them of extremism.
In her column, published last December, Hopkins defended the US authorities’ decision to stop Mohammed Tariq Mahmood, his brother Mohammed Zahid Mahmood and their nine children from boarding a flight to Los Angeles. She also suggested the family had links to al Qaeda.
Hopkins further suggested that the reason for the family visiting US was a lie, and that she too would have stopped them from boarding the flight. A week later, another article with similar tones suggested Mohammed Tariq Mahmood’s son, Hamza, was running a Facebook page that allegedly contained extremist material.
A correction was published by Mail Online over the weekend which stated: “We and Katie Hopkins apologise to the Mahmood family for the distress and embarrassment caused and have agreed to pay them substantial damages and their legal costs.”
The brothers were pleased after the Mail and Hopkins accepted the allegations were fake. “Even to this day, the US authorities have not explained the reason why we were not permitted to travel; we assume it was an error or even a case of mistaken identity,” a statement issued by their lawyer said.
“However, matters are not helped when sensationalist and frankly, Islamophobic articles such as this are published, and which caused us all a great of distress and anxiety. We are very pleased that the record has been set straight,” the statement added.
The publication’s apology came just days after it corrected another article which claimed that the NUS president, Malia Bouattia, had said young Muslims are travelling to join Islamic State in Syria due to cuts in the education sector.
