NORTH-EAST Muslims have condemned the murder of a British soldier by two apparent extremists, saying the crime had tarnished Islam.

One of the attackers in Woolwich allegedly told witnesses that the killing of 25-year-old Lee Rigby was in response to British soldiers killing Muslim people in Afghanistan.

But Wadood Ahmad Daud, a Hartlepool youth leader with the Ahmadiyya Muslim Youth Association North-East (AMYA), said the attackers had damaged the religion they claimed to support.

Mr Daud said he not been able to sleep because he was so upset at the attack, adding: “I'm just as appalled as anyone else in this country and my heart goes out to the family of the soldier involved in this.

“They're betraying their own religion and their actions are against the teachings of Islam - they have further tarnished the beautiful image of Islam.

“They are doing a disservice to their own religion by terrorising other people - they will get nothing out of it.”

He said: “They should not be allowed to hijack the name of Islam and should not be allowed to be ambassadors of Islam."

The attack was also condemned by Muslim leaders at Al-Madina Jamia Mosque, in Waterloo Road, Middlesbrough.

“Taking a life is not right and this was an unprovoked attacked – it doesn't matter if this was a soldier or not,” a spokesman said, adding a plea for the public not to hold all Muslims accountable for the actions of a small number of “idiots”.

“Just because they someone is the same skin colour, sex or religion, it doesn't mean we all condone their actions.”

Paul Salahuddin Armstrong, from the Association of British Muslims, said the attackers' actions had removed them from Islam, because there were no grounds to justify attacks of terrorism.

“If you go back to the Quran, there is no grounds for this kind of behaviour, no grounds for murder,” he said.

Faith and communities minister Baroness Warsi, who attended Thursday's meeting of the Government's Cobra emergencies committee, said: “What I've been incredibly impressed with, coming out of this tragedy, is the way in which the British Muslim communities have so unreservedly and unitedly condemned these barbaric acts and said very clearly 'these are not in our name, not in the name of the faith of nearly three million people in this country, and have expressed their support for our servicemen and women'.”

“There will always be individuals and groups who will try and use these moments to divide us. Lets not forget that the terrorists ambition themselves was to divide and terrorise us as a nation.”