From the UK Independent:

The Guardian newspaper is refusing to sack one of its staff reporters despite confirming that he is a member of one of Britain’s most extreme Islamist groups.

Dilpazier Aslam, who has been allowed to report on the London bombings from Leeds and was also given space to write a column in last Wednesday’s edition of The Guardian, is a member of Hizb ut-Tahrir, a radical world organisation which seeks to form a global Islamic state regulated by sharia law.

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.

Here’s the kicker:

Sources in The Guardian said that Mr Aslam was employed to increase ethnic diversity within the newsroom under The Guardian’s one-year traineeship scheme.

Ah! Well I’m sure that the ethnic diversity requirement(?) makes having an Islamic extremist on staff at your paper ok then, I guess. I’m sure he has no problem keeping his personal bias out of his reporting of the London bombings. No problem at all.

More: Patterico has more on this and notes how an editorial written by Aslam that was published in today’s LA Times was , um, creatively edited.