Lee Rigby’s widow joins terror attack survivors to sign open letter warning against “anti-Muslim hate”

Terror attack victims and their families have signed an open letter warning against the dangers of conflating Muslims with extremism. 

The 57 signatories to the letter include Rebecca Rigby, whose husband Lee Rigby was killed by two men with extremist views outside Woolwich barracks in 2013, and Laurence King, who survived a terror related stabbing attack in Streatham High Road in 2020.

The survivors state they are “only too aware” of the impact of the atrocities driven by Islamic extremism across the world and that fighting the threat should be a priority.

But they warn against politicians equating extremists with “the vast majority of British Muslims who deplore such violence”.

This comes as Communities Secretary Michael Gove plans to set out a new definition of extremism which will be used by the Government and councils to ban financial ties or support to individuals or groups that have been categorised as extremist.

The new definition identifies extremism as attempts to “overturn, exploit or undermine the UK’s system of liberal democracy to confer advantages or disadvantages on specific groups”.

The letter, organised by Survivors Against Terror, says: “To defeat this threat the single most important thing we can do is to isolate the extremists and the terrorists from the vast majority of British Muslims who deplore such violence.

“In recent weeks there have been too many cases where politicians and others have failed to do this; in some cases equating being Muslim with being an extremist, facilitating anti-Muslim hate or failing to challenge it.”

The letter was published in advance of the fifth anniversary of the far-right terrorist attack on two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, which killed 51 people on March 15.

Pictured top: Rebecca Rigby lays flowers in memory of Lee Rigby following the terror attack outside Woolwich barracks in 2013 (Picture: PA)