A trainee lawyer at a top London firm has been criticised for a video in which he said the Paris terror attacks would not have happened if non-Muslims hadn't "gone to our lands and killed our people and raped and pillaged our resources."
Aysh Chaudhry, a 22-year-old trainee at Clifford Chance, posted the 21-minute video online on January 11. It was later set to private, but has since been republished under a different account.
In a lengthy rant, Chaudhry condemned the events in Paris but urged other Muslims not to adopt an "apologetic tone" in response. They should "have confidence in Islam because we are enslaved otherwise," he said, adding that Islam is "superior" to Western ideology.
"We are becoming infatuated with the civilisation of the kuffar [non-Muslims] and their beliefs and their values and indeed we have latched on to these," Chaudhry said.
"'We need to remove this Western cultural lens with which we are viewing and responding to attacks on Islam from our eyes. Stop putting freedom on this pedestal. This is a value stemming from secular, liberal beliefs. We don't need a value which stems from a bankrupt ideology."
Chaudhry, who lives in Walthamstow, east London, added: "Now you know who you are if you are of those who state 'I will die to protect your freedom and I believe in freedom of speech'. But understand that it is not the Islamic response to this issue. It represents a defeatist mentality, brothers and sisters.
"We would not be here had it not been for the fact that the kuffar had gone to our lands and killed our people and raped and pillaged our resources," he said.
Chaudhry has now apologised for the video, saying he has a "deep and serious Islamic faith" and did not intend to "support or condone violence".
A spokesperson for Clifford Chance said the firm is "committed to establishing an inclusive culture" and stressed that Chaudhry's video expressed his personal views, not those of the company.
The director of interfaith group Stand For Peace, Sam Westrop, told the Daily Mail that the law firm should "not tolerate such exclusively divisive and unpleasant views".
"This venomous rhetoric, directed at non-Muslims, should not be regarded as mere political ramblings. It is the language of terror," Westrop said. "[Chaudry's] claims of victimhood in foreign lands is a familiar narrative to counter-terror analysts."
