The murder of aid worker Alan Henning "shifted Muslim opinion wholesale" against his Islamic State (IS) killers, according to a Home Office anti-radicalisation worker.
Sulaimaan Samuel, a national safeguarding mentor for Channel, the Home Office's scheme to prevent adults and children becoming involved in terrorism, told Sky News the orchestrated killing of the Salford taxi driver had "backfired" on the extremists.
The 47-year-old was beheaded by Islamic State militants in a video released on social media after he was captured in December while delivering food and supplies to Syrian refugees.
The murder of aid worker Alan Henning 'shifted Muslim opinion wholesale'
Samuel said: "The announcement that they were going to execute him, kill him - this really did shift public opinion and it shifted Muslim opinion wholesale.
"I would personally say to Alan Henning's family: do not think his death has been some type of waste because it hasn't, because his death at the hands of IS is the very thing that has caused the Muslim community to realise that what IS stands for is wrong and can never be condoned.
"In Alan's death he has managed to save thousands of lives now and in the future of people who might potentially have been drawn into going out. He will be saving lives in the future.
"What IS has done has backfired."
Samuel added that the greatest threat from radicalisation now came from online content, and those travelling to a foreign country or being influenced by a single preacher happened "much more rarely".
Fellow Briton David Haines was also executed by IS militants, following the murders of US journalists Steven Sotloff and James Foley, while another Briton, journalist John Cantlie, remains in the hands of the terrorist group, also known as Isis. The group have also threatened to execute aid worker Peter Kassig, who now goes by the name Abdul-Rahman since converting to Islam.
Since September, IS has used Cantlie as a public face, with him recently fronting a video from the besieged town of Kobane.+