Hindu UKIP Member Racially Harassed for Calling Britain a "Christian Country"

Country: United Kingdom

Date of incident: December 7, 2016


Anish Patel, a UKIP member and practising Hindu took to Twitter with a message defending Britain’s Christian identity. In response, Twitter users responded with racist epithets.

Patel's tweet said: I know this is early, Merry Christmas to all. We are a western Christian country. If this country loses its identity the rest is meaningless." He followed this with: "And if people are offended by Christmas, I will personally drive them to the airport myself." He was called a “coconut” — a racial epithet for people of immigrant backgrounds who have successfully integrated — and was told to “stick to Gujurati festivals only”, even bring called a “kutta”, a derogatory slang word meaning “dog”. His offer to drive objectors to the airport became the subject of Twitter trolls. His comments came just days after the matter of Britain’s Christian heritage was raised by Conservative MP Fiona Bruce: “Many Christians are now worried, even fearful about mentioning their faith in public.” Prime Minister Theresa May, the daughter of a vicar, agreed saying: “We’re now into Advent, and we have a very strong tradition in this country of religious tolerance and freedom of speech. Our Christian heritage is something we can all be proud of.”