Gays would be executed in an ideal world, a leader of the Muslim community in Luton, England has said.

Abdul Qadeer Baksh made the comment during an interview with BBC Three Counties Radio.

He was debating extremism with presenter Olly Mann and the former leader of the English Defence League, Tommy Robinson who has just stepped down saying the organization he founded to tackle Islamic fundamentalism has become too extremist.

Baksh argued his comment only applied to an ‘ideal society’ which he sees as a Muslim country run by Sharia law – not secular Britain.

He said: ‘When I say “ideal society” I mean Islamic society, not a western secular society like we live in here.

‘At the end of the day every moderate Muslim holds this view as well. Every moderate Muslim holds these are the punishments in Islamic society.’

He said Sharia wouldn’t be forced on the UK.

‘What I would like to see is peace and tranquility, all of us to get on together. If Sharia came to this country it would only come by the people’s desire for it.’

He went on to say that in Saudia Arabia ‘very, very few’ ‘hands are chopped off’ or ‘women lashed’ and the laws are mainly a deterrent.

In fact the country is regularly criticized by human rights watchdogs for the cruel and unusual nature of its punishments, many amounting to torture, and for its treatment of women, LGBT people, immigrants and others.

Robinson remarked: ‘What Qadeer [Baksh] is saying is gays should be scared to be gay.’

Listen to the exchange here: