A far-right heckler ended-up spending time with his Muslim hosts at an open debate on Sharia Law.
The event in Preston organised by the Light Foundation was entitled 'Is it Now time for Sharia Law in the UK?' and attracted Muslims, Christians, Jews, Hindus, atheists, the LGBT community and members of the Far Right.
Preston Mayor Coun Brian Rollo was also at the event.
Nadeem Ashfaq, co-founder of the Light Foundation said police were guarding the event in case there was any trouble.
He said, "One member was wearing a T-shirt celebrating ‘Enoch Powell’ and stood up during the event and shouted "This is a Christian country and we only follow a Christian God here."
"Another member from the Far right left early after not being able to drag one of our speakers into an argument.
"He left immediately after a member of L.G.B.T (lesbian/Gay) community told him to be quiet, coupled with one of our speakers reassuring him with the following words; "I hear your complaints and share many of them, so there's no need to argue, we agree. Shall we do something together to solve these problems?"
"A third individual from the far right EDL approached one of our speakers after the event and told him how much he liked and agreed with what he was saying.
"He also said he believed he was sincere and he would pray for him.
"In a twist of events, the man, who stood up during the event and shouted "This is a Christian country and we only follow a Christian God here", stayed towards the end of the programme and accepted our invitation to have dinner with us and our speakers, where he admitted that he was involved in the past with some very extreme organisations and had been investigated by police for links to extremism and terrorism."
Towards the end of the night, he said; "I can't believe I've witnessed so much generosity from the people I've been brought up to hate."
Shaykh Adam Kelwick said: “What we witnessed was nothing short of a miracle and it just goes to show that sometimes all we need to do is sit down and listen to each other for amazing things to happen.’’
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