Katie Hopkins Pillories Muslim Family 'Refused Entry To US'

Katie Hopkins Launches Searing Attack On Muslim Family 'Barred From US'

Katie Hopkins has hit out at the Muslim family apparently barred from traveling to the United States, saying "there is another side to this story not being told".

The columnist questioned the story given by the group, which included children aged between 8 and 19, after they were told their travel visas had been revoked by the US Department for Homeland Security.

Hopkins asked: "When was the last time two grown men, took nine ‘kids’ abroad on their own? Since when was a 19 year old a child?

"Where were the mothers of these 9 children? Was it just that the women’s place was in the home? Were they too female to fly?

Mohammad Tariq Mahmood outside his home in London

Hopkins' comments come after it was revealed that one of the party's home addresses had been associated to Facebook pages with links to Al Qaeda.

Mohammad Tariq Mahmood was traveling with his brother and nine of their children through Gatwick airport as part of a "trip of a lifetime" to Los Angeles, including a visit to the city's Disneyland amusement park.

The 41-year-old north Londoner told Sky News that an official told him there was a problem with their entry visas and that they were not allowed to board their flight.

Home of Mohammad Tariq Mahmood, 41, in Walthamstow, North London

Hopkins used her column to counter those "whinging on about the obvious discrimination against them on religious grounds."

Implying that the family's home in the London Borough of Waltham Forest raised questions about potential links to extremism, Hopkins wrote: "Anjem Choudary - Britain's loudest extremist hate speaker - came from Waltham Forest."

She also went on to refer to the reports that an address had been linked to terror-supporting Facebook pages, writing: "And if it wasn’t enough that two Muslim men from an extremist area of England, plus their nine children were flying together without any women, to set off alarm bells there’s the fact that they have confirmed links with Al Qaeda."

The group's trip was to include a visit to Disneyland

Bizarrely, Hopkins wrote of her experience as a security guard at Disneyland to shore up her argument that the family did not sound like "our typical visitor group".

Disney has not yet responded to HuffPost UK's request for comment.

Meanwhile, David Cameron has been asked to intervene in the family's case after Labour MP Stella Creasy voiced her anger at the situation.

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