LONDON – An Indian-born Sikh pensioner is hoping to become the first non-white member of the far-right British National Party (BNP) because he wants to fight Islamic extremism, he said on Monday.

Rajinder Singh, 78, is joining the BNP -- whose policies include stopping immigration -- after the party voted Sunday to change its constitution to admit ethnic minorities for the first time, following a court ruling.

Singh, a retired teacher, was born in West Punjab and left India in 1967.

He said he had seen the "potential of Islam", witnessing extensive violence after partition in 1947, and wanted to "save" Britain by working to prevent similar scenes here.

"Islam is global, it has zero loyalty to Britain," he said.

"The BNP are sons of soil and they are standing up for their soil. I wish we had a counterpart of the BNP in India in 1946."

He said he had adopted the "British way of life" but denied he had renounced Sikh values.

"Some Sikhs say 'You are not a Sikh', but I have core Sikh values," he added.

"Britain is changing, it's not the Britain I came to when I came in. The British people are worried, and the BNP is the expression of their worry".

Singh also praised BNP leader Nick Griffin for "taking on the whole storm of lefties" who wanted to encourage multiculturalism.

The BNP says it expects Singh to become an official member Tuesday, while Griffin has said he expects a "trickle, rather than a flood" of applications from ethnic minorities.

The party has no MPs in the House of Commons but two of its representatives sit in the European Parliament and it has dozens of local councillors around England.

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