Score one for the good guys of the blogosphere! The Guardian, the once—prestigious left wing U.K. newspaper, has been forced to fire an intern, Dilpazier Aslam, who was a member of an extremist Islamist political party and who had not declared this when he wrote a comment after the 7/7 attacks.

This is the first time a British "journalist" has been forced to step down after being criticized by bloggers.

The group in question, Hizb ut— Tahrir, promotes racism, anti—Semitism, calls suicide bombers "martyrs" and urges Muslims to kill Jewish people. The intern wrote an opinion piece  for the Guardian after 7/7 which scolded the English for being surprised about the 7/7 attacks. He wrote that the English people bore responsibility of its own for the attacks.

He wrote that his generation of Muslims would not be afraid to "rock the boat" to protest against what they perceive to be injustice. He attached the word "sassy" to them! 

Guardian employees apparently just can't help themselves. Some of them support Aslam.  In a bitter report on the newspaper's media pages, a staffer lays the blame for Aslam's removal on "right wing" American bloggers but others in Europe point out  that reputable British bloggers (and people) also criticized the Guardian for continuing to employ this man after his links to radical Islam were publicized.

Ed Lasky   7 26 05