Controversial British newspaper columnist Katie Hopkins has issued an apology for falsely accusing a Muslim family of being extremists.
Hopkins had written in the Daily Mail last year that the US authorities were right to stop the Mahmood family from entering America. She suggested the two brothers, who were travelling to Disneyland with their children, were radicals with connections to Al-Qaeda. Hopkins later incorrectly suggested one of their sons ran an extremist Facebook page.
In the apology, tweeted by the controversial writer in the middle of the night, the Mail said “ 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.”
However, loath to let Hopkins’ heartfelt expression of regret go unseen, Twitter users - including some public figures - shared the apology thousands of times:
Katie Hopkins tweeted this at 2:00am, obviously hoping fewer people would see it. We should probably make it go viral, right? https://t.co/bIEd2dfzPU
Social commentator, Owen Jones
I know Katie Hopkins will be gutted if people miss this given she posted it at 2am so help her out and spread it far and wide https://t.co/rbyQUTw98t
Journalist, Siraj Datoo
Oh no, Katie Hopkins must have accidentally sent this apology tweet (for writing lies) at 2am, forgetting that most people would be asleep. https://t.co/bXajm5Hvhy
Comedian, Jennifer Saunders
Katie Hopkins is a loathsome being https://t.co/PBES3R1MHL
Others took the opportunity to make clear that the Islamophobia spread by figures like Hopkins has no place in Britain:
Katie Hopkins Issues Extraordinary Apology To Muslim Family After Mail Online Columns #DontBuyTheDailyMailhttps://t.co/oqzpqavtGq pic.twitter.com/V4v7Jvwog8
This cartoon references a previous incident in which Hopkins, then writing for the Sun newspaper, referred to immigrants as “cockroaches.”
Islamophobia is an increasing problem in the UK, with the anti-Muslim hate monitoring group Tell MAMA reporting a 326 percent increase in incidents in 2015. The problem is perpetuated by scaremongering and inaccurate reporting from certain elements of the press.
RA
