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Faisal Bashir stopped practicing Islam in the summer of 2014 saying he found it “too hateful” and that it was “sending out the wrong message”.

But he said he started getting harassed when he stopped going to the mosque in Ilford, east London.

The father-of-two said: “I heard religious people say things I couldn’t put up with any longer – it was all too hateful.

“These people knew I had become an atheist and soon enough my whole family was being harassed.

“At least once a week they would hang around near my house, shouting and swearing at me.