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TWO men who successfully battled to set up a multi-faith centre were rewarded for their determination at an Asian awards ceremony.

Sheraz Arshad and Farouk Hussain jointly picked up the Man of the Year honour on Sunday night at the Fusion Awards.

The awards, co-sponsored by the Lancashire Telegraph's sister paper Asian Image, celebrated Asian volunteers, public servants and high achievers in the North West.

Sheraz and Farouk established the first Muslim place of worship in the Ribble Valley after a 30-year battle.

Members of Clitheroe's 300-strong Muslim community first applied for permission to build a mosque in 1998, then again in 2000 and 2002, at a terraced house in Holden Street, Clitheroe, but were refused.

However, the council granted permission for the mosque, overcoming local residents objections over traffic, parking, noise and loss of privacy, in December.

Sheraz, secretary of the Medina centre, the organisation behind the new mosque, said: "We have been able to fight the resistance through positive means to inform people about Islam."

Farouk, chairman of the centre, said: "This was a culmination of 30 years of work started by our fathers who are no longer with us and it's a testatment to them that we have achieved this."

The centre is also responsible for the first multi-faith scout group in the country.

The Community Cohesion Award went to Inspector Andy Pratt, of Lancashire Police, who started as a sergeant in Blackburn.

He was responsible for setting up the first police community cohesion team in the county in 1996 - the model for all policing areas to follow.

Teenage snooker ace Kamran Ashraf, from Nelson, who made it to the final of the England Under 16s snooker championships, took the Achievement in Sport Award.

Anila Baig, a columnist for the Sun, took the media personality of the year, presented by Lancashire Telegraph editor Kevin Young.

The ceremony, at Bolton's Reebok Stadium included a fashion show and money will go to the Fusion 07 official charity - Global Assist - which is helping to build a school after the earthquake in Kashmir.