In August 2011, under the headline “Ayatollah of the RAF: Academic ‘university’ head is Muslim convert who claims Nazi gas chambers were British propaganda and criticises Libya air strikes”, the Mail on Sunday published a disgraceful attack on Joel Hayward, at that time dean of the Royal Air Force College at Cranwell.

Finally, over two years later, the Mail on Sunday has admitted that it libelled Hayward and has published the following apology in today’s paper:

“On 7 and 8 August 2011 we suggested that the beliefs of Dr Joel Hayward, then the Dean of the RAF College Cranwell, prevented him from fulfilling his duty of impartiality and fairness as a teacher in the RAF by causing him to show undue favouritism to Islamic students and spend too much time on Islamic activities. We now accept that these allegations are untrue. We apologise to Dr Hayward and have paid a substantial sum to him in damages.”