From Monday to Thursday, Joshua Harris bakes.
By Friday every week, the 12-year-old begins asking for his suitcase – pointing to the letters of the alphabet tattooed on his father’s arm. The next word he communicates is “taxi.”
He knows it is time to travel.
Weekends are reserved for delivering the cakes Joshua has spent the week preparing to mosques and other places of worship across the United Kingdom.
For Joshua, widely known online as the “Joshie Man”, baking was a passion long before it became a public message. His mother, Herica Harris, taught him how to bake.
“My wife, Herica, is 48 and a housewife. She has devoted her life to our children, Joshua and his 10-year-old sister, Charlotte,” says his father, Dan Harris, 47.
Dan says Joshua has cooked in more than a dozen Michelin-starred restaurants, visited the kitchen of The Ritz London and met renowned British chefs, including Jamie Oliver and Tommy Banks.
But after a far-right attack on a mosque in their hometown of Peterborough, cake became more than something Joshua loved making.
“He had this real passion for cooking, and then it just turned out that cake was the vehicle for our message,” Dan tells TRT World.
‘Cake Not Hate’
Joshua is a non-speaking autistic boy who lives with his family in Peterborough. ‘Cake Not Hate’ began after a far-right activist entered a local mosque, assaulted a female police officer and verbally abused children and other worshippers, according to Dan.
Disturbed by what had happened, father and son went to the mosque the following day carrying cakes.
Dan, a white British Christian, wanted the Muslim community to know that those expressing anti-Muslim hatred did not represent everyone in Britain.
“It was meant to be a one-off gesture on a rainy Sunday afternoon.” Instead, a video of their visit travelled far beyond Peterborough.
The pair began travelling to more mosques across the UK.
They have also taken their message to churches, cathedrals, synagogues, temples and gurdwaras, reflecting Dan’s belief that solidarity should cross religious boundaries rather than create new ones.
Their campaign does not try to answer hatred with a louder argument. It uses hospitality: a homemade cake, a conversation and the decision to enter a space that others have been encouraged to fear.
Dan describes his son as a “peace ambassador”, not because Joshua delivers speeches or enters political debates, but because he approaches people without the prejudices that often shape the adult world.
“He does not care about the colour of your skin, your faith or your background. He understands whether someone is kind or unkind,” Dan says.
Dan had the alphabet tattooed on his arm after understanding that his son needed a more immediate keyboard — one that would always be available when a tablet was out of reach or a moment required quick communication.
Kindness brought threats
As the campaign became more visible, it also attracted hostility from far-right figures and networks. Dan says some portrayed his support for Muslim communities as a betrayal of Britain, even though he understood it as an expression of the inclusive values he associated with his country.
He says Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, widely known as Tommy Robinson, posted about the family and shared Joshua’s photograph on X. Dan says the threats intensified after the family was exposed to that larger online audience.
The family received death threats and threats of physical violence. People tried to identify Dan’s workplace and Joshua’s school, while a letter was circulated among Dan’s professional contacts urging them to distance themselves from him and describing him as dangerous and ‘not British’.
The intimidation changed how father and son travelled. British police now support them during some mosque visits, at times waiting outside and escorting them into the building as a visible deterrent.
