Britain's leading Muslim lobby group, thrown into the spotlight by last month's bombings in London, has rejected an accusation that its roots lay in extremist politics in Pakistan.
Mr Iqbal Sacranie, leader of the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB), said the allegation, made in the Observer newspaper, was "absolutely preposterous".
"I can't believe that anyone who knows anything about the MCB could take that statement seriously," he told Reuters.
In a lengthy report on the MCB, the Observer alleged the council's leadership and some of its 400 diverse affiliates had "links with conservative Islamist movements in the Moslem world" and "the extremist politics of Pakistan".
It said the links were particularly strong with Jamaat-e-Islami, Pakistan's leading mainstream Islamist party.
The Observer singled out two MCB affiliate organisations - the Islamic Foundation and Jamiat Ahli-Hadith - for criticism, describing the latter as "an extremist sect".
The Islamic Foundation is an educational institution based in central England while Jamiat Ahli-Hadith is a religious group based in Birmingham.
Sacranie defended both groups, saying the MCB was proud to have them as affiliates. Neither of them was involved with extremist politics, he said.