The head of the Church of England has rescinded an interfaith award given to a Muslim cleric on the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks after public outcry about the Imam’s praise of Osama bin Laden, the architect of the terrorist attacks that claimed the lives of nearly 3,000 people.
Hafiz Muhammad Tahir Mehmood Ashrafi was given the award for “reconciliation and interfaith cooperation” by the Archbishop of Canterbury Sarah Mullally last week, on the United States’ solemn anniversary of the horrific terrorist attacks by Muslim jihadists.
Lambeth Palace quickly faced scathing rebuke after Ashrafi’s praise for bin Laden as someone who had “been fighting for Islam against the Russians, Americans and British,” resurfaced in comments from 2007.
Reportedly, Ashrafi also acknowledged that he would give bin Laden the title Saifullah, which means “Sword of god.” He told the BBC his remarks had been “totally taken out of context” and the criticism was “an unfair campaign” against him.
Meanwhile, the office of the Archbishop of Canterbury has since issued the following renunciation: “Last week the Hubert Walter Award for Reconciliation and Interfaith Cooperation was presented to Maulana Hafiz Muhammad Tahir Mehmood Ashrafi in a ceremony at Lambeth Palace. The award was given for Imam Ashrafi’s longstanding support for religious minorities in Pakistan, particularly the Christian community – support that is valued by many Christians in Pakistan including its Anglican Church. It is a longstanding principle of interfaith dialogue and co-operation that we must engage with one another across deeply-held differences, and that remains the case. However, previous comments made by Imam Ashrafi have come to light that have led Lambeth Palace to reconsider this award and we can now confirm today that the award has been withdrawn. We have contacted Imam Ashrafi to make him aware of this decision. We continue to pray for the Christian community in Pakistan, and for all those working for interfaith dialogue and harmony in Pakistan and around the world.”
But during last week’s award presentation, the Archbishop of Canterbury’s office said Ashrafi was being honored for “his outstanding work as an ambassador of interfaith harmony in Pakistan, known for his commitment to promoting religious tolerance.”
In his defense, Ashrafi claimed that he was only speaking about bin Laden in 2007 in response to “the hurt felt by many Muslims” over a knighthood being awarded to “The Satanic Verses” author Sir Salman Rushdie.
Rushdie was the subject of fatwas calling for his execution and assassination attempts for fictionalizing the Prophet Muhammad in his bestselling book.
Ashrafi’s critics say that his comments about bin Laden aren’t the only reason the Church of England should distance itself from the Muslim cleric.
While the imam has been credited with intervening in the 2012 case of Rimsha Masih, a young Christian girl in Pakistan falsely accused of blasphemy, he has also advocated strongly for Pakistan’s blasphemy laws that have led to an estimated 2,000 prosecutions since the late 1980s.
And the defendants include a disproportionately high number of Pakistan’s minority Christians and Ahmadis in particular, but many majority Sunni Muslims too.
Posting on X, Conservative Party opposition politician Nick Timothy wrote: “The naivety of our public institutions for engaging with people like this is staggering. But not surprising.”
Ashrafi claimed the blasphemy laws actually “save lives” by stopping people from taking matters into their own hands.
But Human Rights Watch reported last year that “the laws perpetuate religious discrimination and are used to target the poor and minorities in unlawful evictions and land grabs.”
The organization has called on the Pakistani government to urgently reform the laws to prevent them from “being weaponized to […] attack marginalized communities.”
