Radical Islamist gets to keep job at Guardian

Dilpazier Aslam's job at the newspaper is safe, even though he's a confirmed member of one of the most virulent Islamist groups in Britain.

It is understood that staff at The Guardian were unaware that Mr Aslam was a member of Hizb ut-Tahrir until allegations surfaced on "The Daily Ablution", a blog run by Scott Burgess. Speculation is mounting that it may have been a sting by Hizb ut-Tahrir to infiltrate the mainstream media.

Late on Friday The Guardian released a statement to The Independent on Sunday saying: "Dilpazier Aslam is a member of Hizb ut-Tahrir, an organisation which is legal in this country. We are keeping the matter under review." The paper refused to comment further.

In 2001 Mr Aslam wrote in the group's in-house journal, Khilafah, that: "The establishment of Khilafah [an Islamic state] is our only solution, to fight fire with fire, the state of Israel versus the Khilafah State".

The day after it was revealed that the London bombers were British, Mr Aslam wrote a column in which he billed himself as "a Yorkshire lad born and bred".

In the piece, he suggested that second- and third-generation British Muslims were prepared to "rock the boat" and that agitation against British foreign policy would build up "till it can be contained no more".

Aslam was hired to increase the ethnic diversity of the newsroom staff. And we can't let an important goal like ethnic diversity be derailed over a trivial matter like this, can we? I'm sure once Aslam's group succeeds in its goals, the Guardian will be a virtual eden of diversity. Imagine: Jews and Christians, Sikhs and Buddhists, women and homosexuals, all working together in complete harmony. Oh wait ...