"It was a lovely moment where everyone came together and everybody thought it was brilliant, and the afternoon carried on."



However, people started to criticise the cathedral when it put up a video of the imam reciting the call to prayer on its Facebook page, Haines said: "The imam translated what he said to say there was no offence to anybody, which was lovely of him, and then I think there was some trolling from some right-wing evangelical Christians – most of them seemed to be from America. We had huge support from the local area. But unfortunately the cathedral decided to take it down."

Gloucestershire Live, the local news website, wrote that people had commented on the church Facebook page calling the event inappropriate, and even questioning why a "different God" should be allowed to be worshipped there.

It reported how one Facebook user said: "We are never to worship other Gods in a house built for our savior. My ancestors built this cathedral and to allow a practicing Muslim pray to another God is insanely naive. What did you think it would do? Encourage them to convert?"

Reverend Stephen Lake, the Dean of Gloucester, said in a statement that the church took the decision to remove the Facebook post because "a small number of comments were inappropriate".

He added: "Whilst the cathedral’s primary purpose is as a place of Christian witness and worship, it is also a place for all people – everyone is welcome, whatever their faith or background. We are proud to be holding the exhibition and would encourage everyone to visit to learn more about people of different faiths.

"To reiterate, the context is very important: The Muslim call to prayer at Gloucester was part of a launch event in the cloisters and chapter house, which are set away from the main body of the cathedral. Furthermore it was not in the context of worship."

The far-right group Britain First posted about the incident on its Facebook page. One user commented: "This is the extent to which the church has fallen to its knees."