In the name of the religion that Katie Hopkins persecuted them for, the Mahmood family have asked the public to ‘forgive her’ in the hope that ‘she may one day reflect and become a better human being’.
Hopkins’ hate-inciting and controversial opinions rarely seem to be of much real consequence to her, but this time, when she defamed Muslim brothers Tariq and Zahid, by falsely accusing them of extremism, Mail Online was forced to pay out £150,000.
The woman who said she would never apologise for her views has – guess what – apologised. Yep, she’s not above the law or human decency as she often likes to think.
What better way to show her how wrong she was than to lead by example, like Zahid Mahmood did when he welcomed her apology.
Zahid, of Walthamstow, said: “I have a humble request to all, please don’t judge all Muslims on the actions of a few.”
He said in the statement:
Our prophet taught us to forgive those who wrong us and to see the good in everyone, so I therefore would like to say I Zahid Mahmood and my wife and family would like to accept Katie Hopkins apology and draw a line under this matter.
I know a lot of people are making vile comments about her, but please refrain and forgive her for her actions. She may one day reflect and become a better human being. As far as we are concerned she has apologised and we have welcomed it.
Here’s the full statement:
He hammered home the important point: “YES I am a Muslim but NO I’m not a terrorist. My children are kids just like yours… my family just like yours.”
Zahid also thanked both his local community and local MP for their support against Islamophobia.
Hopkins was heavily criticised after she tweeted the apology at 2am – when most Daily Mail readers are fast asleep.
In protest to her sweeping the apology under the rug, people shared it all over Twitter and Facebook, with her post alone receiving over 12k retweets.
The apology published by the Daily Mail and Katie Hopkins read:
An article published in Katie Hopkins’ column on 23 December 2015 (‘Just because Britain’s border security is a Mickey Mouse operation you can’t blame America for not letting this lot travel to Disneyland – I wouldn’t either’) suggested that Mohammed Tariq Mahmood and his brother, Mohammed Zahid Mahmood, are extremists with links to Al Qaeda; that their purported reason for visiting the USA – namely to visit Disneyland – was a lie; and that US Homeland Security were right to prevent them from boarding their flight.
We are happy to make clear that Tariq Mahmood and Zahid Mahmood are not extremists, nor do they have links to Al Qaeda. They were travelling to the USA with their families to see one of their brothers for a holiday in California and they had indeed planned to visit Disneyland as part of their trip.
In addition a further article in Katie’s column on 29 December (‘A brave Muslim tried to warn us their week about the extremists taking over his community. What a tragedy it is that our PC politicians would rather not know’) suggested that Hamza Mahmood (Mohammed Tariq Mahmood’s son) was responsible for a Facebook page which allegedly contained extremist material.
Our article included a photo of the family home. Hamza Mahmood has pointed out that he is not responsible for the Facebook page, which was linked to him as a result of an error involving his email address. We are happy to make clear that there is no suggestion that either Hamza nor Taeeba or Hafsa Mahmood (Hamza’s mother and sister) have any links to extremism.
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.
We sincerely hope that Zahid is right, and Katie Hopkins may one day reflect and become a better person.
But we won’t hold our breath.
