Church of England revokes award to Muslim cleric who praised Osama bin Laden
The Church of England has rescinded an interfaith award given to a Muslim cleric after comments he made praising Osama bin Laden recently resurfaced.
Lambeth Palace, the official residence for the Archbishop of Canterbury, issued a statement on Thursday announcing that it is rescinding the Hubert Walter Award for Reconciliation and Interfaith Cooperation given to Maulana Hafiz Muhammad Tahir Mehmood Ashrafi on Sept. 11.
On the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people in the United States, Archbishop of Canterbury Sarah Mullally presented the award to Ashrafi, a Muslim cleric, touted for his support for religious minorities in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, especially the Asian country’s Christian population.
“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,” stated the residence.
“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to light that have led Lambeth Palace to reconsider this award and we can now confirm today that the award has been withdrawn.”
Church officials “have contacted Imam Ashrafi to make him aware of this decision” and “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.”
Ashrafi was one of 27 individuals to receive a Lambeth Award, which are honors given to people in recognition of their exceptional contributions to either the Church of England, the global Anglican Communion or society at large.
Ashrafi received his award along with other honorees at a ceremony held in the Great Hall of Lambeth Palace last Friday.
“We live in a world which is not always what we wish it would be. There is much injustice. We face a climate emergency,” said Mullally at the event. “It would be very easy for us to throw up our hands in despair, but I do not. I am a person of hope.”
“For me, these awards represent an opportunity to acknowledge that valuable work and those often unseen efforts of people determined to make a difference, determined to be hope in this world.”
Reports surfaced that, in 2007, the imam had praised Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, the terror group responsible for the 9/11 attacks, as someone who had “been fighting for Islam against the Russians, Americans and British” and would have given him the title of “Sword of God.”
Ashrafi’s remarks had reportedly come in response to the controversial decision by Queen Elizabeth II to knight Salman Rushdie, a best-selling British author and critic of Islam.
Ashrafi told the BBC that his comments about bin Laden were “totally taken out of context” and part of “an unfair campaign” against the cleric.
Others have criticized Ashrafi’s public support for Pakistan’s blasphemy laws, which have been used to persecute Pakistani Christians and Muslims who do not belong to the Sunni majority.
George Conger of Anglican Ink wrote a column published Thursday in which he argued that the whole incident was an example of “the chronic failure of the Church of England’s institutional leadership to apply to interfaith engagement the same rigor it demands, rightly, of every other area of public life.”
“Lambeth Palace is not short of staff, lawyers, communications advisers, or access to open-source information. A ten-minute search of Reuters and AFP archives would have surfaced Ashrafi’s 2007 statements in full,” wrote Conger.
“The question is therefore not whether the information was available. It is whether anyone looked — and, if they looked, whether anyone was willing to act on what they found.”
