A 54-year-old disabled grandfather has been fired for sharing an ‘Islamophobic’ Billy Connolly sketch on his personal Facebook page.
Brian Leach was a check out worker at Asda in Mill Street West, Dewsbury for almost five years when he was “grassed-up” by an offended female employee who complained that the skit was anti-Islamic, The Mirror reports.
In the offending video, Connolly mocks both Christianity and Islam, and refers to suicide bombers as “f***ing idiots.”
“They said seven people, all Asian (Pakistani) as I understand it, had complained including the woman at head office who escalated the complaint,” Leach said.
“I realise it was poor judgement but it was just a joke,” he added, “and I didn’t expect another colleague to post it to the entire [Muslim] community. I thought I was going to end up with a knife in my back when I was stood at the back of the store on a quiet night.”
Leach’s bosses ruled that he had committed gross misconduct by sharing something with the “potential to bring the company into disrepute.” Leach went on to accuse his bosses of “double standards”, pointing out the company has no issue selling Billy Connolly books and DVDs.
