THE UKIP Parliamentary candidate for Stretford and Urmston has rejected that he is anti-Islamic after describing the religion as "despicable" in a Facebook post.

Kalvin Chapman, a solicitor from Manchester specialising in banking litigation, posted the message on the Loud Atheism Facebook page on January 24, 2014.

The message was beneath a post linking to a BBC story about Mohammad Asghar – a 70-year-old British man with mental health issues, who was sentenced to death for blasphemy in Pakistan after writing letters to various people claiming to be a prophet.

Beneath the link to the story, Mr Chapman wrote: “I commented on this earlier. Guy that has schizophrenia and thinks he's a profit. Obviously blasphemy and not his mental health. Just shows how despicable islam is”.

Mr Chapman then made a derogatory comment using an expletive about the religion’s followers.

The post was highlighted by anti-racism campaign group, Hope Not Hate.

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Hope Not Hate Spokesman Simon Cressy said: “Around 10 per cent of the population of the Stretford and Urmston constituency are Muslim, what hope does this minority have of proper representation if Chapman was elected next month?"

Responding to a Messenger enquiry, Mr Chapman said: “They have taken my words out of context. My condemnation of Islam for this one issue - executing a man for no reason other than that he has a mental illness - is not a condemnation of Islam as a whole, nor of the people who practice it.

“I have no problem with Islam, nor of the people who hold it as their faith. It is the same as condemning Saudi Arabia for the execution of two women last week - I condemn them for that but I do not condemn an entire nation or its people for it.”

He added: “As anyone can independently verify by looking at my friends list on Facebook, I have a lot of Muslim friends.

“As a gay man I have seen real bigotry. I am not a bigot, and I find quite odd that someone could suggest I am.

“My criticism of Islam for execution of mentally ill people under its despicable blasphemy laws is just that, criticism. It is not criticism of the faith, nor of the people who hold that faith and peacefully enjoy their religion.

“The statement, whilst admittedly not worded as fully as I would have liked, is clearly a reference to the execution of a 70-year-old British man.”

A UKIP spokesman said the party are standing by Mr Chapman and said his quotes had been taken out of context.

The spokesman said: “We’re standing by him. It was maybe not the most solicitous phraseology and he has opened himself up to criticisms that we think are unwarranted.”