Bunglawala, who over a number of years has made inflammatory statements, some of which could be construed as antisemitic, was named in press reports over the weekend as being one of the convenors of a home office group, tasked with persuading young Muslims to steer away from extremism.

It is understood that Board of Deputies president Henry Grunwald has made strong representations in a letter to Home Secretary Charles Clarke querying the appointment and asking for urgent consultations on the matter.

Meanwhile Liverpool MP Louise Ellman wrote to the home secretary expressing her "concerns'' at the reports of the appointment.

In specific terms she referred to statements made by the Muslim council spokesman some years ago and more recently about the "undue influence in the media by Jewish interests".

In a BBC Today programme interview in mid-July just after the first series of terrorist bombings in London, and a series of accusations that young Muslims have played key roles in the outrages, Bunglawala claimed that "Israel has highly placed supporters in the media".

This was a repetition, albeit in a shorthand way of comments he made in 1992 when he wrote in an article "the chairman of Carlton Communications is Michael Green from the Capitol Tribe of Judah. He has joined an elite club whose members include fellow Jew, Michael Grade and Alan Yentob".

Michael Grade is now chairman of the BBC governors whilst at the time Alan Yentob was director of BBC2.

Mrs Ellman asked Charles Clarke to withdraw his invitation to Inayat Bunglawala pending clarification of the MCB's spokesman's views.

"It would be unacceptable for the convenor or a group set up to combat extremism, to share some of the same unacceptable views".

And she concluded it was necessary to combat Islamic extremism from including its antisemitic undertones.

Mr Bunglawala's statements seem to reflect conspiracy theories emulating from the protocol of the Elders of Zion.

Coinciding with news of the Home Office appointment, the BBC showed an hour long documentary on Sunday night during which its correspondent John Ware evidently annoyed members of the MCB following his investigation into some of the less than savoury views both of a number of affiliates to the organisation and his secretary general, the recently knightly, Iqbal Sacrani.

The programme included part of a fascinating interview with the MCB chief who is much favoured as a so-called moderate by the government, in which he clearly looked uncomfortable when confronted with some of the more extremist comments by some of its members and was especially discomforted when reminded that the MCB had boycotted Holocaust Memorial Day since its inception.

Bunglawala said this week that after accepting the Home Office offer he had been present at the first meeting of their new group.

He said he was happy to meet the Deputies to dispel their fears.

Bunglawala maintained that comments he made that the UK's media was Zionist-controlled and that Jews were the children of the devil were made when he was less experienced and much younger.

NA says: "Oh dear, oh dear - this has put the cat among the pigeons so to speak!"
(Right - the offending Muslim gentleman)