Excerpt:
With its terrazzo tiles, glass lift and atrium, Tower Hamlets town hall feels like the efficient modern home of an authority proudly proclaiming itself a "four-star council".
The borough boasts improved schools, spruced-up parks and increased house building. But look closer and some more unusual things are happening.
The council chamber has hosted at least one debate with an anti-homosexual Islamic preacher. Until last month, Tower Hamlets public libraries stocked hundreds of items of extremist Islamic literature, bought at taxpayers' expense and available to borrow.
These included hundreds of audio tapes of sermons by the extremist preacher Anwar al-Awlaki, blamed for inspiring September 11, the Fort Hood terrorist massacre and the underwear bomb plot.