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TRANSCRIPT
Twelve-year-old Josh Harris and his father Dan call their project 'Cake Not Hate'.
The idea is simple: bake cupcakes and deliver them to mosques and other places of worship across the UK, including sites in London, Birmingham, and Leicester.
For Dan, the idea started after a disturbing incident in his community.
"So this campaign was very much an accidental thing. We went along to our local mosque a couple of days after it was attacked by a far-right person. When we bought some cakes and that’s where Cake not Hate began."
He says he felt compelled to act and offer support.
“Despite not being a Muslim myself, I could see the rising tide of Islamophobia and people that I’ve known for 40 odd years are telling me that they don’t let their children go out after school anymore, that they get verbally abused in the street. They got told to go home .”
Home Office data shows 45 per cent of all religious hate crimes in the UK are targeted at Muslims - more than any other faith group.
The rate of increase has been 19 per cent - over the 12 months until March 2025.
Dan says baking cupcakes with his son has become a small way to push back.
But Josh, best known online as Joshie Man, is the real star of the campaign.
He's autistic and non-verbal. Instead of speaking, Josh communicates using a tattoo of the alphabet on his father's arm.
Online, the response has mostly been positive.
Josh’s social media videos have attracted hundreds of thousands of followers.
But there’s also been criticism. Dan says he has taken it in his stride.
“So they're accusing me of demonstrating non-British values, and actually my argument is that British values are of tolerance, respect, inclusion and kindness. So these are the values we want the world to know about the UK. Rather than those that the far-right are putting across.”
Inside the local mosque in Peterborough in eastern England, Josh is greeted warmly.
His friend, Atiq Rehman, says the project has resonated across Muslim communities.
“I think this campaign that Dan set up himself with his little boy, Joshie, is global, it’s beautiful. What a beautiful thing to do to go into mosques at a time like this, and to promote love and not hate. Everywhere Josh goes he's become so famous in the Muslim world. He's gone in giving people cakes and love and look how viral he's gone and how beautiful his character is. For us it's an honour, it's a gift from God.”
At the mosque, Imam Ubaid says this small gesture carries a bigger message.
“I think the cake symbolises something a lot greater. The cake symbolises and you know sort of demonstrates to the entire world that there's so much more in common that we have than that which divides us and is, know, shown and displayed outwardly. That in a time full of divisions, something as simple as cake, everyone's got a sweet tooth, everyone likes a nice sweet treat. And for something as small as that to be able to tackle one of the biggest issues we've got today is, you know is amazing. You know we live in a time of so much information, everyone is pushing some form of information. The internet will tell you one thing printed media will tell you one thing, but what we're trying to say and what Dan's almost highlighted to the entire world is stop following other people and take the initiative. Come and have a look, our doors always open."
Back in the mosque hall, the fast is broken at Iftar - the evening meal during Ramadan.
Men sit eating bread, dates and lentils.
Josh sits among them with his box of cupcakes beside him.
