Who is Marc Anwar? Coronation Street actor entangled in racism row, here’s what we know
The shamed star has been axed from the soap and is now being investigated by police
CORRIE star Marc Anwar is being investigated for race hate crimes and has been sacked from the soap following a bizarre Twitter rant.
The 45-year-old Pakistan-born actor apologised sorry for branding Indians “b******s* and “p***-drinking c***s” in a row over Kashmir, but attempted to justify his comments as “passion” for his Pakistani heritage.
Anwar was axed with immediate effect after posting the tweets, which appeared to attack India over Kashmir and called for Pakistani actors to stop working in the country.
But who is Marc Anwar? Here's what we know about the actor and the racist tweets...
Acting career
Anwar first appeared on the cobbles as businessman Sharif Nazir in 2014 as a member of the soap's first Muslim family.
He is dad to the late Kal Nazir and an investor in his son's gym business V Court Fitness.
In August it emerged that Nazir had been doing the dirty behind wife Yasmeen's back for seven years.
The businessman's affair with family friend Sonia Rahman was revealed at his 45th wedding anniversary when the pair fell into bed together while Yasmeen was running errands.
It recently emerged on the soap that he is now being pressured into buying a flat for his lover, while being blackmailed by grandaughter Alya, who knows about the affair.
Before Coronation Street, Anwar appeared alongside Tom Hanks in the 2013 film Captain Phillips as one of the Maersk Alabama Crew.
He was also in Samuel L Jackson blockbuster The 51st State, where he played a pharmacist.
Tweets
Anwar was slammed for posting a series of offensive tweets about Pakistan just days after an attack on an Indian army base in Kashmir killed 18 soldiers.
India claimed Pakistan was behind the attack, something it has denied.
He tweeted: “Why the F***k do #pakistaniartists want work in #f*** face #india, do you love money so much.”
Tweeting an image of a clenched fist, he added: “Ban #india movies in #PakistanisLeaveIndia. B*****ds p**s drinking #c**ts.“F***ing #indians killing our #Kashmir brothers and sisters, beygairth #NawazSharif still sucking #modi Lul!”
A further entry saw him call on Pakistanis to leave India.
Twitter users have since called on Greater Manchester Police to launch a race probe.
Treboeth wrote: “@gmpolice can we expect #racism charges to be brought against this #racist #corrie” (sic) Konigstiger14 added: “I demand a Police investigation...” (Sic).
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Anwar has issued a weak apology, saying: "I apologise for any offence my recent tweets caused.
“The comments were my own personal views on a matter I feel passionately about.
“I never meant to offend anyone, race, religion. #KashmirKillings makes me sad. Once again I apologise unreservedly.”
Despite the apology, Anwar was axed from Corrie and has been condemned by charities for "adding fuel to the fire".
Fiyaz Mughal, director of the charity Faith Matters, said: "It’s unacceptable for anyone today to put material online that targets a segment of a population. You can’t just blame a whole group of people for a conflict."
“Marc needs to reflect, and in a way retract what he said, and understand you can’t go online and add fuel to the fire.
“I can empathise with the anger and feel nothing is moving, but the best way to relieve that anger is to work with your political leaders.”
Just two months ago, Anwar was pictured with police in a campaign to tackle hate crime.
Greater Manchester Police have received a complaint and are investigating.
A spokesman said: "On Sunday 25 September 2016 police received a report of a hate crime.
Police have launched an investigation and enquiries are ongoing."
Future on Coronation Street
According to the , scripts for Corrie are being hastily rewritten to "minimise" a large festive storyline involving Anwar.
His character Sharif Nazir was set to have plenty of screen time after his lengthy affair was revealed.
But a source on the ITV show said: “There are going to have to be lots of rewrites. Sharif is integral to the plot, even though the focus has shifted to the family reaction.
“The reaction story thread was to play out until December and, as the show works seven weeks ahead, a lot of it has been shot.
“He did have more scenes to shoot – that won’t be happening now and efforts will have to be made to minimise his screen time in episodes that are still at the editing stage.
“It will also be tricky to address his sudden departure – so it’s a lot of extra work for the writers and it comes as they are building up to the important Christmas episodes. It’s bad timing.”
Corrie bosses are now taking no chances and have gagged everyone involved in the soap.
“The whole crew have been gagged and put on lock down after the racist tweets scandal,” a source told .
ITV said in a statement: “We are deeply shocked by the entirely unacceptable, racially offensive comments made on Twitter by Marc Anwar.
“We have talked to Marc and, as a consequence of his comments, he will not be returning to Coronation Street with immediate effect.”
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