Among her controversial opinions is that the Chechen terrorist leader and architect of the Beslan school massacre, Shamil Basayev, was a 'shaheed' i.e. Islamic martyr. When the family of Al-Qaeda leader Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi denounced him, Ridley declared this "cowardly" and said she would "rather put up with a brother like Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi any day than have a traitor or a sell-out for a father, son or grandfather". In both articles she renounced violence and said later that critics had chosen to "cherrypick out of context to make mischief".