A claim in The Spectator that “there are an estimated 32,000 Muslims eager to commit the next terror atrocity” constituted a significant inaccuracy, the UK’s largest press watchdog has ruled.
The comment piece by James Delingpole, published on 23 September shortly after the Parsons Green Tube bombing, carried the online headline: “We can never accept terrorism as the new normal.”
It shared the author’s belief that we should not “keep calm and carry on” in response to terror attacks. It also claimed another 100,000 Muslims were prepared to give “moral support” to the would-be terrorists.
Miqdaad Versi, assistant secretary general of the Muslim Council of Britain, complained to the Independent Press Standards Organisation that the article breached Clause 1 (accuracy) of the Editors’ Code of Practice.