Kingston lecturer condemns white racist slur as ‘stupid’

A SIKH Kingston University lecturer has hit back in a controversial battle after being accused of racial hate on white people by UKIP leader Nigel Farage’s former right hand man.

Sunny Hundal, 39, was bashed online last week after Raheem Kassam, 29, labelled the lecturer a racist for naming the founder of the far right anti-immigration group, PEGIDA UK, Tommy Robinson, a “white boy”.

Nigel Farage’s former senior advisor, Kassam, claimed it was Hundal’s lobbying efforts which stopped Robinson speaking at the British Hindu Temple’s Presidents Conference 2016.

Prior to Hundal’s racial allegation, Robinson said on Twitter: “The event had been cancelled after threats instigated by Sunny Hundal”.

Hundal, Kingston University’s journalist in residence, said: “It is pathetic. He [Kassam] is just one guy who has nothing better to do with his day other than write nonsense articles about me.”

The article was written on the right wing news website ‘Breitbart’ by Kassam, which lit an old spark in an on-going four year Twitter war.

Hundal added his “laughing stock” enemy got ousted from UKIP for being “incompetent” following a lacklustre election result.

One of the most contentious crossfire tweets between the pair was Hundal describing Kassam as a “hypocrite” in response to the Breitbart article, as he recounted how Kassam once named him a “brown boy”.

“Breitbart just hates me and loves turning every little thing into a news story – no one else followed it up because they saw how ludicrous it was,” Hundal said.

He added he felt critics of the slur were “stupid” because “calling someone ‘white’ is not racist, anymore than calling someone ‘Asian’ – Saying that he was an idiot because he was white would be racist”.

Kassam in response to Hundal accused Kingston University of supporting Hundal’s racial remark after they issued a statement supporting him.

Kassam said: “Sunny Hundal is a political activist who moonlights as a blogger. The idea that anyone should be learning journalist ethics from this man is risible.”

The KU statement said: “Mr Hundal’s statements were made as an individual, rather than as a representative of Kingston University. In any event, Kingston University upholds freedom of speech and the rights of individuals to express their opinions.”

The spat came as a result of an article Hundal published online four years ago, claiming that Kassam “bought Twitter followers” and hijacked his own Wikipedia page to post a series of edits which included removing the “notability” flag used to suggest Kassam may not have sufficient profile to warrant a Wikipedia page.

Hundal, who in 2011 won the Guardian’s blogger of the year award, has had a lot of criticism since founding the left wing political blog “Liberal Conspiracy” after being placed 16th on a 100 worst people on twitter list three years ago, where he was called “useless”.

With over 55,000 Twitter followers, he is a well-known Twitter activist who has argued that the far right is using ‘divide and rule’ between Sikhs and Muslims.

He is also known for critising far right groups and the Conservative party. He claimed that Bollywood actor, Shahrukh Khan’s endorsement of skin-lightening creams was “completely immoral”.