The Church of England has rescinded an interfaith honor given to an Islamic cleric who once praised Osama Bin Laden following widespread backlash.
| PULSE POINTS |
❓ WHAT HAPPENED: The female Archbishop of Canterbury has rescinded an interfaith award for an Islamic cleric who praised Osama bin Laden. 📺 DETAIL: On the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Archbishop of Canterbury Dame Sarah Mullally, the senior bishop of the Church of England and symbolic head of the global Anglican Communion, gave Imam Hafiz Muhammad Tahir Mehmood Ashrafi the Hubert Walter Award for “reconciliation and interfaith cooperation.” Ashrafi was awarded for his supposed “longstanding support for religious minorities in Pakistan.” However, soon after the award was granted, it was revealed that Ashrafi had referred to Osama bin Laden as “Saifullah,” an honorific Islamic title meaning “the sword of God,” during Islamic protests against the decision to award author Salman Rushdie with a British knighthood back in 2007. Rushdie is under an Iranian fatwa for his novel, The Satanic Verses, which Muslims regard as blasphemous, and was seriously injured in an assassination attempt in 2022. In response to news of Rushdie’s knighthood at the time, the imam said: “If a blasphemer can be given the title ‘Sir’ by the West despite the fact he’s hurt the feelings of Muslims, then a mujahid [jihadist] who has been fighting for Islam against the Russians, Americans and British must be given the lofty title of Islam, Saifullah.” A spokesman for Ashrafi has since claimed that the imam’s comments were taken out of context. Since 2007, Imam Ashrafi has been chairman of the Pakistan Ulema Council, an organization of Islamic scholars, which has allegedly supported extremist actions. “It is obscene, and almost beyond parody, that the Archbishop of Canterbury has awarded an Osama Bin Laden apologist an interfaith award on the anniversary of 9/11. This demonstrates appallingly poor judgment and is an insult to the victims of 9/11 and their families. Interfaith engagement must not mean overlooking support for extremism,” commented Alejandro Sanchez, spokesman for the National Secular Society. Lambeth Palace, the Archbishop’s seat in London, confirmed that the imam’s award was withdrawn on Thursday. 💬 KEY QUOTE: “Why, oh why, is the Archbishop of Canterbury giving an award to a man who praised Osama Bin Laden just a few years after the Twin Towers?” said Reform UK leader Nigel Farage on GB News. 🎯 IMPACT: The incident has intensified scrutiny of the Church of England’s leadership and its naive approach to interfaith relations with Islam, with calls for a re-evaluation of its priorities. This represents another controversy for the Church of England. Dame Sarah, a pro-abortion woman, was appointed to the senior office earlier this year, sparking criticism that the English established church was straying from Christian teaching and causing many traditionalist Anglican churches to break away from it. The same month, it installed pro-diversity graffiti in one of its cathedrals, sparking criticism from Vice President JD Vance. “It is weird to me that these people don’t see the irony of honoring ‘marginalized communities’ by making a beautiful historical building really ugly,” said the Vice President at the time. |
Why on earth did the Archbishop of Canterbury give an award to a man who praised Osama bin Laden? pic.twitter.com/Z7n3Y4e83l
— Nigel Farage (@Nigel_Farage) September 18, 2026
Image by Neil Turner for Lambeth Palace.
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