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Sir Mo Farah has been attacked by online trolls for wishing his fans a 'merry Christmas' on social media.

The British four-time Olympic gold-medallist took to Instagram to share a photo of himself wearing a Santa hat alongside the words 'merry Christmas' on December 25.

But scores of commenters criticised the long-distance runner for acknowledging Christmas despite being a practising Muslim.

One said: “You are being given the name of our beloved prophet Mohamed and it is better to protect the honourable name and your religion of Islam.”

Another read: “The respect I had for you went way down. Shame bro.”

Another added: “Are you serious? You are Muslim you can’t do this, I’m sorry for you.”

However, many of the responses were positive and more than 26,000 people have liked the post. Farah, who recently won BBC Sports Personality of the Year, has not responded to any of the comments.

It comes after boxer Amir Khan was similarly targeted by online trolls after posting a picture of his Christmas tree to social media.

The devout Muslim wrote: “While everyone’s asleep, daddy put the Christmas tree up. Lamaisah’s going to be happy. #Christmas #MerryChristmas2017.”

But after putting up the photograph, Khan, 31, soon started receiving negative comments from people who claimed he shouldn’t be celebrating Christmas as a Muslim. He even received death threats.