Missing shoe: Muslim campaigner Asghar Bukhari

A British Muslim campaigner faced online ridicule after he claimed 'Zionists' had sneaked into his home and stolen a single shoe.

In a public Facebook post, Asghar Bukhari, a founding member of the Muslim Public Affairs Committee UK, said someone had tried to intimidate him by taking his footwear as he slept.

He wrote: the 'game was simple - to make me feel vulnerable in my own home', before adding 'it is not the first time I have heard this happening'.

He ended by urging readers to share the message.

Within hours, the rant had prompted dozens of mocking tweets, with the hashtags #MossadStoleMyShoe and #ShoeishConspiracy trending on Twitter, with one user telling him to 'put a sock in it'.

In response, he issued a bizarre, 15-minute YouTube rant in which he said, 'they're stealing people's homes in Palestine. You think a shoe is a big deal for them?'

A number of readers also created memes mocking Mr Bukhari's assertions that a member of the Israeli Secret Intelligence Service, better known as Mossad, had rearranged his footwear.

The message, which was posted on Facebook alongside a black-and-white image of a boy wearing one shoe, is written under the head 'are zionists trying to intimidate me'.

It read: 'Someone came into my home yesterday, while I was asleep. I dont know how they got in, but they didn't break in - the only thing they took was one shoe.

'Now think about that, the only thing they took was a single shoe - they left one shoe behind to let me know someone had been there.

'Of course I cant prove anything and thats part of the intimidation. The game is simple - to make me feel vulnerable in my own home. Its Psychological. Neither can I do much about it.'

Rant: The Facebook message posted by Mr Bukhari, in which he claimed someone had stolen his shoe

The campaigner's Facebook message appeared alongside this dramatic image of a single shoe

It continued: 'It is not the first time I have heard this happening. I have had another Muslim leader call me a year or so ago, in tears - she told me they had been coming into her house and re-arranging things - just to let her know they had been there.

'There is one good thing that comes out of all oppression however - for those who are smart - from my misfortune, others can learn how they operate.

'Share this widely, for if it is happening to me, I am sure it happening to many, many others who have not exposed it.'

Mocked: Three of the dozens of mocking tweets that appeared online within hours of Mr Bukhari's message

Ridicule: Others transformed movie posters, or imagined the top secret meetings behind recovering the shoe

Readers did choose to share the message - but not in the way Mr Bukhari had hoped.

Dozens took to Twitter to ridicule the idea. One wrote 'Breaking News "Mossad Behind Theft of Cinderella's slipper"' while another said: 'Next time a sock disappears in my dryer, I'm going to blame the PLO. #MossadStoleMyShoe'.

Mr Bukhari hit back at the online criticism by writing a series of tweets in response. In one he said 'haters going to hate' and in others he asked for his missing footwear to be returned.