Tehran-based Press TV, the Iranian government’s English-language answer to the Arab-owned Al-Jazeera English, has been taking some heavy hits since the repression of opposition during and after the rigged Iranian presidential elections in June. The station has been referred to Ofcom for breaching ‘impartiality and accuracy’ requirements of public broadcasting (here), and Press TV’s English journalists like Andrew Gilligan, Cherie Blair’s half-sister Lauren Booth and Yvonne Ridley have all been heavily criticised for de facto working for the holocaust-denying and increasingly apocalyptic Tehran government (here) . Some have even questioned whether the station should be allowed to operate in the UK (here).

I was posed a conundrum on Monday when, out of the blue, I received an email inviting me to participate as a panellist in Press TV’s flagship current affairs show Forum on Wednesday. This is a Question Time-style programme with four panellists and chaired by none other than the controversial Andrew Gilligan. The four were to be Ahmed Versi, the respected editor of Muslim News; Massoud Shadjareh, the vocal and perennially indignant chair of the Islamic Human Rights Commission; Said Shehata, Egyptian Coptic lecturer in Middle East politics at London Metropolitan University; and me. The topic for discussion: ‘Is Islamophobia a threat to British society?’ Apparently Press TV ‘found (my) views compelling’ when they interviewed me about the proposed West Ham mega-mosque last year, and reckoned I would be ‘a very valuable asset to the panel’.

Putting aside the naughty thought that if I was so compelling why had they contacted me just 48 hours before the show (who had cancelled on them?), I realised that I had to decide (a) whether an appearance on Press TV is in any way supporting the Iranian regime; and (b) whether to accept the offered fee.

Having been frequently and baselessly accused of Islamophobia over our mega-mosque campaign, I knew I had a lot to say on the topic. And – more importantly – we live in a liberal democracy, and even a government led by a Mahdist maniac should be allowed to promote its views in the UK. So the station is legitimate. But should I take Ahmadinejad’s shilling?

After some heart-searching I came to a blindingly obvious conclusion. I’d ask for the fee to be sent to a deserving charity. I informed Press TV that the payment should be forwarded to the campaigning ‘voice for the voiceless’ aid organisation Christian Solidarity Worldwide (here) led by the former disgraced Cabinet minister but now rehabilitated Christian writer and speaker Jonathan Aitken.

Problem solved, I attended the show in west London and came up against the full force of Shadjareh’s incendiary indignation. He immediately locked onto the BNP and didn’t want to come off the topic. It was only slowly that I realised he actually needs the BNP; the more he can enhance the perceived role and importance of this dreadful far-right group, the more important his own role will be – at least in his own eyes. No growth of the BNP, no stick with which to beat the UK media, authorities, and society in general. During the show Shadjareh and I went head-to-head more than once.

The following morning I attended a Henry Jackson Society conference in Westminster on Iran: ‘The Islamic Republic of Iran: New Course or Old Paradigms?’ (here) Among other things speakers explained that the messianic proclamations and lunatic policies of Ahmadinejad are derived from his form of Shi’ite Mahdism. The Mahdi is the Twelfth and last Imam, Muhammad al-Mahdi, who was born in 868 AD, ‘hidden by Allah’ at age 5 and now apparently waiting to return. Shi’ites consider that on his return the Mahdi will fight for the cause of Islam and restore justice, fairness and faith.

If I understand it right, Ahmadinejad’s version of Mahdism is particularly apocalyptic. It seems he believes Muslims can actively speed up the Mahdi’s return by deliberately creating the necessary chaos that will impel him to come back to sort out the situation, to rid the earth of error and injustice, and to rule the globe for Islam.

It looks like Iran, the Middle East and the world are in for a rough ride thanks to Ahmadinejad’s dangerous theology and imminent nuclear capability. The dreadful BNP seem like Andrex puppies in comparison.

I was surprised by a lump-in-the-throat experience earlier today.A week ago, 3rd September, we were remembering the 70th anniversary of the start of the Second World War, and we heard once again grainy recordings Chamberlain’s voice telling the nation that Germany had not responded to the 11.00am ultimatum and that therefore “we are at war”.

Tomorrow we will remember the 8th anniversary of 9/11.

But today I attended a commemoration service for Canning Town’s own wartime tragedy when Hallsville School received a direct hit from a high explosive bomb in the early hours of Tuesday 10th September 1940. Officially between 70 and 80 people including many children died; locally it is believed still that the figure is far higher but the wartime government falsified the figures for the sake of public morale. Whole families who had been bombed out of their homes and who were sleeping at the school while waiting for evacuation were wiped out – transportation should have arrived the previous day, but apparently had been sent mistakenly to Camden Town.

In recent years the local branch of the excellent Royal British Legion has organised a Service of Remembrance on the anniversary of the incident at the war memorial outside the old St. Luke’s church on Tarling Road, and within sight of today’s Hallsville School just 300 metres away across the local park. I was asked to both lay a wreath on behalf of local people and do the Bible reading.

It was a glorious sunny morning, the leaves of the park trees were tinged in early autumn brown. Knots of older people stood or sat around reminiscing before the service took place. Some of them were pre-teens in 1940 and can still remember vividly the dark night the bomb fell. And a dozen equivalent pre-teen children from St Luke’s primary school were there too chatting away, with their bright promise of youth and life.

At 11 o’clock we started, singing lustily the traditional and emotive hymn, “Abide with me”. The haunting and similarly emotive bugler’s Last Post sounded out across the park, a reverent minute’s silence followed and then the Reveille was played.

Laurence Binyon’s poem came next: “They shall not grow old as we that are left grow old. Age shall not weary them nor the years condemn… At the going down of the sun and in the morning, we shall remember them.” We prayed the Lord’s Prayer, laid our wreaths on the memorial and then it was my turn to read from the Bible.

I glanced across the park to Hallsville School, looked at the old people worn down by the years but proud and dignified as they remembered lost family and friends, saw the fresh expectant faces of the school children, and I turned to the Bible text. It was the 23rd Psalm: “The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want… Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil for Thou art with me.”

A lump rose in my throat, tears started to well up and I thought, “I’m not going to make it.”

I paused, took a breath, looked up and down again, was conscious of the Lord’s presence and the importance of the occasion, and started.

Just sixty seconds later I had made it; I had completed the task without sniffling! “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life,” I read, “and I will dwell in the House of the Lord forever.”

For all sorts of reasons I left the service thankful for God’s goodness and mercy.