Community groups and MPs have warned the government against politicising extremism.
Zara Mohammed, head of the Muslim Council of Britain, told BBC Newsnight the definition would lead to the “unfair targeting of Muslim communities”.
Azhar Qayum, CEO of Muslim Engagement and Development, said “delegitimising lawful dissent in this way is itself undermining liberal democratic principles” and that he had “placed the government on legal notice”.
Brendan Cox, husband of murdered MP Jo Cox and founder of Survivors Against Terror said the new definition was “not the scorched earth policy that we feared a few weeks ago”.
He added there were “some constructive elements” to it but that the government’s approach had been “mismanaged and mishandled”.