The Sunday Times has issued an apology after it was revealed a story it ran claiming “enclaves of Islam see UK as 75% Muslim” was based on a survey on one school and its perception of the country’s Asian population.
The original story, published on 4 December and also covered by The Sun, Daily Express and the Mail on Sunday, cited a report by government integration tsar Dame Louise Casey that had not yet been published.
It claimed thousands of Muslims in the UK were so cut off from mainstream society that they over-estimated the country’s Islamic population by a factor of 10.
The article was pounced upon by far-right groups including the English Defence League and Britain First.
The correction in the Sunday Times points out the results were based on one school who were asked about Asians, not Muslims.
The full correction reads:
We reported in ‘Enclaves of Islam see UK as 75% Muslim’ that the Casey review of integration would say that some segregated Muslims believe Britain is 75% Islamic.
This was incorrect.
In fact the review, published after our report, cited a survey of pupils in a largely Asian school who thought 50-90% of the population of Britain were Asian.
We apologise for the error.
The Mail Online and Express retracted their articles and published similar corrections earlier in the month.
The Sun added a clarification to their coverage.
They come after a complaint made to IPSO by the Secretary General of The Muslim Council of Britain, Miqdaad Versi.