Six employees from HSBC, one of the world’s biggest banks, have been sacked after they posted a mock beheading video to Instagram, causing immediate outrage.
In the clip, filmed during a team-building day at Teamworks Karting track in Birmingham, England which was organised by HSBC, five of the men are dressed in black and wearing balaclavas while their ‘hostage’ is wearing an orange jumpsuit.
Using a coat hanger as a pretend knife, one of the bankers then cries out the Arabic phrase “Allahu Akbar” which means “God is great.” It is the same phrase called out by IS executioners before they murder their hostages.
One banker proceeds to raise the coat hanger above the head of the ‘hostage’ while a colleague holds his shoulders.
The footage will have greatly distressed the families of those murdered by IS including British aid workers David Haines and Alan Henning.
The video has since been deleted, but HSBC took quick and firm action after being notified of the video by UK newspaper The Sun and dismissed all six involved saying:
“We do not tolerate inappropriate behaviour. As soon as The Sun brought this video to out attention we took the decision to sack the individuals involved. This is an abhorrent video and HSBC would like to apologise for any offence.”
The sacking of these men comes at a time when HSBC is still struggling to win back public approval after being involved in a money-laundering scandal. The bank was also one of five recently fined £2 billion for rigging foreign exchange markets.
