Excerpt:
The Islamist-liberal alliance, a traditionally powerful force in parts of British political life, has suffered a significant setback after serious allegations about one of its key figures recently surfaced. Robert Lambert is a former police officer in the Special Branch – a division of the British police service that is linked to national security, protection of VIPs, and known to work closely with the Security Service (also known as MI5, Britain's domestic spy agency). In retirement Lambert has been closely associated with Islamists in the UK: he works at the European Muslim Research Centre (EMRC) in the University of Exeter, a center funded by front groups for the Muslim Brotherhood.
Shortly after 9/11, when Lambert was still an operational police officer, he created the Muslim Contact Unit -- a deeply controversial division with London's Metropolitan Police -- to cultivate links with extremists within the Muslim community. The idea behind it seemed sensible enough: the police would need to engage with difficult aspects of the community to build intelligence on individuals of concern. Yet, the unit was soon engaged in much more than just intelligence-gathering. Extreme Islamists were not only being actively partnered by the police; they were also being supported, bolstered and, in some cases, even funded.