Anjem Chaudhry has claimed most Muslims would agree with what the man believed to be the Woolwich attacker was filmed saying moments after the death of Lee Rigby.
On Newsnight tonight, Chaudhry said while the brutal attack on a serving soldier was shocking what the man covered in blood said about foreign policy explained what he did.
Chaudhry, who set up Islam4UK which was condemned in the Terrorism Act 2000, refused to say he abhorred and was horrified by the attack.
Drummer Rigby, a married father of a two-year-old boy, died after being brutally attacked in broad daylight by two men in South East London yesterday.
He said: “What he said in the clip which is being televised, not many muslims can disagree with it.”
Presenter Kirsty Wark strongly disagreed with the statement, along with his fellow panelists from the Muslim community.
Shams Ad-Duha Muhammad, a director at Ebrahim College, said the vast majority of Muslims would strongly disagree with Chaudhry.
He said: “Why is not possible for us as Muslims that we cannot condemn what happened here and air our views regarding foreign policy?”
While Julie Siddiqi, Executive Director at the Islamic Society of Britain, said there was ‘absolute condemnation’ from every Muslim organisation.
She said: “I want to give my condolences to Lee Rigby’s family.
“There is no justification for what we saw yesterday.”
The man seen in the video had met Chaudhry before, and attended one of his demonstrations for anti-Western al-Muhajiroun organisation.
The clip, obtained by ITV News, shows a bloodied man wielding a bloodied meat cleaver in the street and shouting as stunned eye-witnesses looked on.
He says: “I apologise that women had to witness this today, but in our lands our women have to see the same.
“You people will never be safe, remove your governments they don’t care about you.”