For I can reveal that the Board of Deputies of British Jews met him after the election, and warned that elevating Tonge to the Upper House spelt trouble."It was a generally warm meeting, but Kennedy was left in no doubt about our concerns," says a member. "He ignored the advice and now chickens are coming home to roost."* One of our foremost motor-racing legends, Sir Stirling Moss, is deeply unhappy with developments to his sport.In a minor snub to Bernie Ecclestone, Moss decided to miss the recent British Grand Prix, because he reckons Formula One isn't interesting any more."I find the technology interesting but the racing isn't exciting like it used to be, so I don't really watch much of it any more," he tells me."The drivers might be skilful but we just don't know: they never get a chance to demonstrate it because so much is done for them by the cars. She's now on the front page of the Jewish Chronicle for declaring that (despite recent events) she stands by what she said.The brouhaha leaves Kennedy with a tricky choice: withdraw the whip from Tonge, or sacrifice chunks of the electorally-crucial Jewish vote.Kennedy can't say he wasn't warned. It centres around Lady Tonge, the former MP for Richmond who - back when she was plain Jenny - was sacked from Kennedy's front bench for saying of Palestinian suicide bombers: "If I had to live in that situation, I might just consider becoming one myself." Although her comments caused outrage in the Jewish community, Tonge didn't learn a thing. Charles Kennedy isn't having a good War on Terror. First he upset parliamentary sticklers by rushing to link the London bombings to Britain's invasion of Iraq; now he's caught up in an ugly row with the Jewish community.

Re-elected 2002;1998- vice-president, Association of Family Welfare;2002 - deputy president, World Memon Organisation.. "How do they go about it? They don't go about it with bombings. They went into the streets, they went into letter writing, this is what we have been trying to say."There is no room for diplomacy on one issue, however. The task is to channel anger into legitimate forms of protest, including the ballot box. He wants mosques to inform people about the means of legitimate protest to steer them away from violence."There are people who are really opposing the Iraq war - more Britishers than anybody else," he says. "If someone is inciting someone to commit acts of terror," he says, "it is a crime."The CV* Born: 1951, Zomba, Malawi* Education: Zomba Catholic Secondary School, 1969; Kennington College, 1978; Walbrook College, Fellow of Instit- ute of Financial Accountants* Career: 1978 - MD, Global Trader Ltd (family business);1986 - chairman, board of trustees, Balham mosque;1992-2001 - member of Inner Cities Religious Council;1995 - trustee, Muslim Aid;1997 - founding secretarygeneral of Muslim Council of Britain. Where there are soldiers, they try to kill the soldiers." Then he adds, with a hint of frustration: "These sorts of explanations will get us nowhere.

What is needed is to bring an end to this crisis."Sir Iqbal acknowledges that Britain's backing for President George Bush over the Iraq war and lack of action over the conflict in Palestine is fuelling frustration among young Muslim men. But he reveals that in the behind-the-scenes discussions before the statement was issued on Friday a distinction was drawn by some between military targets and civilian targets in the Middle East."I will tell you where the confusion gets into it Where there is a war. Is he prepared to distance himself from this view? "Israeli innocent civilians are in exactly the same category as innocent Palestinians, as innocent Britishers. They are innocent civilians," he says, without hesitation.Sir Iqbal insists that British Muslim scholars have taken a lead in condemning suicide attacks. After a number of questions, Sir Iqbal issues the clarification that seemed to have been missing before: "The position as far as the council is concerned in terms of any innocents wherever they are in any part of the world - there can never, ever be justification of killing civilians, full stop."Some Muslims have suggested that Israeli adults can be considered combatants as they may be on a military reserve list. The gathering, the first of its kind since the fatwa was issued against Salman Rushdie, issued a clear message that bombing attacks on civilians does not lead to martyrdom.The message to the community was clear: "The pursuit of justice for the victims of last week's attacks is an obligation under the faith of Islam."But there remained a niggling ambiguity, after the press conference, about whether the imams equally condemned British Muslims who mount suicide attacks in Israel or Iraq.