Oh Bungle!

The Mail on Sunday reports:

A Muslim who advised the Government following the July 7 London bombings has been arrested after an alleged stabbing.

Inayat Bunglawala, 39, was held on suspicion of attacking another man at his £300,000 home.

Mr Bunglawala, who also briefed former Security Minister Tony McNulty on the threat posed by Islamic radicals in the UK, was arrested two weeks before Christmas last year.

The identity of the alleged victim is unknown and it is not clear what circumstances led to the alleged attack in the early hours of December 13 last year.

Mr Bunglawala has been released on bail while the Crown Prosecution Service considers bringing charges.

That’s all there is on this alleged stabbing – and be aware that this is all that can be said about this.

But they also report something else that had passed me by:

Many in the Islamic community have been concerned at his behaviour. Mr Bunglawala – the MCB assistant general secretary and Press spokesman – lodged a complaint with the BBC after its website described firebrand cleric Abu Qatada as an ‘extremist’.

Dubbed Al Qaeda’s ‘Ambassador in Europe’, Abu Qatada gave religious authority to extremist groups in the UK and abroad, including the men behind the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Centre.

Last night, a BBC News source said: ‘We were right to call Abu Qatada an extremist and we would be happy to do so again.’

I’m not at all surprised by that.

There’s also this:

In his final years as Prime Minister, Tony Blair came to distrust the organisation amid claims it was linked to Islamic extremism. But the MCB has enjoyed a renaissance under Gordon Brown and briefed Counter-Terrorism Minister Bill Rammell on community tensions last week. MCB representatives also advised Foreign Secretary David Miliband during last year’s Israel-Gaza War.

Conservative MP Patrick Mercer, who worked as a security adviser to Mr Brown, said of the alleged incident: ‘This calls into question the Government’s vetting of its Islamic advisers.’

I feared as much.

The Mail also reports this:

His wife, Tahmina Saleem, works for Redbridge Council in East London.

When I google her, I discover that she used to work for the Muslim Council of Britain. Well, given that Bungle employed his own sister, Shehnaz Bunglawala, to work at his new iEngage advocacy organisation, I’m not surprised by that.

She now works at Redbridge Council. Here is a document that states that she works or worked for the “Safer Communities Team” and was involved in the administration of the Redbridge Tackling Extremism Together Fund.

You might also remember that key Bungle ally, Abdurahman Jafar was involved in something described as a “Redbridge Countering Extremism and Islamophobia group”. Until he resigned:

Respect party’s Abdurahman Jafar stepped down after advertising an Iraq war debate between Respect MP George Galloway and Mr Gapes for the government-funded Redbridge Countering Extremism and Islamophobia group – despite neither agreeing to take part.

Gapes complained in the House of Commons of flyers advertising the event as “a devious stunt” to promote the Respect party, and believed he would have been “denounced” for not attending.

But Mr Jafar said: “It was a mistake, an oversight. I was trying to save time and money by promoting a prospective event in advance.

“It is absurd to suggest I was using money and the group to promote party politics. I am not a professional organiser and I accept the criticism.

“It would have been better to get a definite answer but I did contact his office.

“I decided to step down in the interests of the organisation.”

What exactly is going on?

UPDATE

Gregg in the comments below notes: