We should unite against extremists

THERE was a rash of attacks on the Muslim community following the horrific killing of soldier Lee Rigby in Woolwich last week. Attacks in Folkestone and Gillingham were among a spike of incidents nationwide. There are clearly some people who are in such a state of anger over the terrorist killing that they are blindly taking it out on innocent Muslims.

People may now be in a highly emotional state but retaliation against the blameless can never be justified.

All races and religions in this country are united in their shock and outrage over Drummer Rigby’s murder. The killers and their apologists under no circumstances represent even the smallest fraction of the Muslim community.

When the IRA brought their bombing campaign to the British mainland from the 1970s to the 1990s everybody understood they did not represent the Irish as a whole.

In fact the true views of Muslims in this latest crisis has been spoken by Shafi Khan, founder of Ashford Muslim Association.

He said the killers had acted under the veil of Islam but have instead brought shame to the Muslim community and given the wrong message about the teachings of Islam, which actually preaches that the killing of one is the killing of all mankind. Moderate Muslims resent their religion being hijacked and distorted by fanatics. All of us, regardless of our ethnic background and spiritual beliefs, should unite to stand up to extremists.