Most of us are still reeling from the shock of Lee Rigby’s barbaric murder on the streets of south east London.
We saw that day some extraordinary examples of the sacrifices people make and the risks they run in service to their country and community.
Lee Rigby’s service as a Fusilier took him to Afghanistan and saw his life end in a brutal terrorist attack back home in the UK.
Igrid Loyau-Kennett’s service saw her stand up to the attackers, as they brandished their bloody weapons, and tell them that they would never beat us.
Mother and daughter, Amanda and Gemini Donnelly-Martin, risked their own lives by asking the killers if they could comfort the young soldier in his final moments, as his life bled away.
These four men and women, ordinary yet extraordinary, set an example that day which the whole world saw and from which all of us have something to learn. This was an attack on all of us in Britain - and, in particular, on the millions of Muslims who are proud to be British.
People like my parliamentary researcher, who was born and raised in Stamford and went to school at Queen Eleanor’s. He is a hard-working, conscientious and patriotic young man, as English as plum read, who observes Ramadan because he and his family are Muslim and celebrates Christmas because they are British.
Nobody was more appalled by Lee Rigby’s murder than good Muslims like him. And he knows that there is nothing in his religion that could ever justify such brutal acts.
Lee Rigby’s killers were evil men - and if there is a Hell they will surely burn in it. We should not allow their spurious claims of religious devotion to distract or divide us.