Usman Shah leapt at the chance to become one of the faces of the Heathrow campaign and describes the moment his parents saw the posters at the airport as "one of the highlights of my life".

"For me, it was a pinch-me moment," says Shah. "I just saw the glitter in my Mum's eyes, and my Dad turns around and said to me, 'Son, I'm extremely proud of you.'

"The two of them said it was the happiest day of their life."

But then at 04:00 one morning Shah started receiving messages and phone calls.

"Usman, have you seen you're going viral? You're going viral for the wrong reasons."

A photo of Shah's poster had been posted online - and the replies were flooded with racial abuse.

"It was someone basically saying, 'What is the image of a brown person doing on Heathrow Airport?'" Shah explains, "and what followed was vile racial abuse - we're talking in the thousands of comments."

The UK "is under siege", wrote one user.

"Nauseating. Welcome to a [expletive] 3rd world country," said another.

A third comment read: "It's almost a crime to be white!!"

Shah says that because he was dressed in traditional clothing when photographed for the poster, people assumed he was Muslim, which resulted in most of the messages being targeted towards his faith.

"There were comments saying London is becoming Londonistan, that it's been conquered by Muslims."

Comment: shah's detractors are absolutely right: she should not be used to welcome people to the UK.  Furthermore, he should not describe himself as a British muslim; he is not British, he is simply a muslim.