Anthony Joshua has suffered a raft of vile abuse after sharing a photo of him in a mosque while on holiday in Dubai.
The IBF world heavyweight champion is in Dubai before returning to the UK to start camp for his upcoming fight with Wladimir Klitschko at Wembley Stadium, and visited the mosque with a Muslim friend.
The 27-year-old from London is one of the most popular and charismatic athletes in the UK with over 1.9m followers on Instagram, but a hateful minority have come out and attacked AJ's mosque visit – including former EDL leader Tommy Robinson.
"Prayer is a method practised from ancient days, so it's very important for us to maintain a spiritual connection, something that people, gladiators would do years ago, so we're just maintaining that routine.
Not everyone chose to ignore the disgraceful trolling.
In actual fact, Joshua doesn't practice religion but respects the history and spirit of prayer, using it as a method of preparation before his fights, as he alluded to in the photo of his mosque visit.
Speaking to Mail Online ahead of his fight with Dominic Breazeale last year, AJ said:
Stand up tall, AJ.
[via Instagram]
