Archbishop of Canterbury Rescinds Interfaith Honour from Pakistani Cleric Over Bin Laden Praise

The Archbishop of Canterbury has officially rescinded a prestigious interfaith reconciliation prize previously granted to a prominent Pakistani Muslim cleric, following intense international scrutiny and widespread public backlash over resurfaced historical statements in which he openly praised the late al-Qaeda leader and 9/11 architect, Osama bin Laden.

The cleric, Hafiz Muhammad Tahir Mehmood Ashrafi, had been presented with the Hubert Walter Award for Reconciliation and Interfaith Cooperation during an official presentation ceremony held at Lambeth Palace in London. The honour was formally handed over by Dame Sarah Mullally, recognising what church officials had initially celebrated as his public profile and his work across religious boundaries in Pakistan.

The scheduling of the award presentation attracted immediate and sharp criticism from observers, as the ceremony coincided with the 25th anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks in the United States. Those coordinated strikes, plotted and executed under the direction of Bin Laden in 2001, resulted in the tragic deaths of nearly 3,000 people and fundamentally altered modern global security.

Lambeth Palace faced an escalating wave of condemnation once past remarks delivered by Ashrafi in 2007 were brought back into the public spotlight. In those earlier declarations, the Pakistani cleric spoke glowingly of Bin Laden, depicting the al-Qaeda figure as someone who had been actively fighting on behalf of Islam against the military and geopolitical forces of the United States, Britain, and Russia.

In addition to praising Bin Laden’s historic militant campaigns, reports documented that Ashrafi had publicly stated his willingness to bestow upon the global terrorist chief the revered religious title "Saifullah," an Arabic designation that translates directly as the "Sword of God." The resurfacing of these specific remarks caused intense dismay given the award's core purpose of celebrating reconciliation and peace.

Following the decision by church leadership to strip him of the honour, Ashrafi spoke directly to the BBC to defend his record, insisting that his historical statements had been entirely taken out of context. He strongly rejected the criticism that followed, characterizing the widespread public backlash as an unfair and coordinated campaign aimed at discrediting his interfaith credentials.

Providing his explanation for the 2007 commentary, Ashrafi argued that his remarks were delivered as a direct emotional reaction to the profound hurt and distress experienced by many Muslims across the world at that time. That widespread outrage had been triggered by the British government's decision to confer a knighthood upon Sir Salman Rushdie, the author of the novel *The Satanic Verses*.

Even in the face of sustained criticism over his rhetoric, the cleric continued to defend the comparison he drew nearly two decades ago. Ashrafi maintained his justification for drawing a parallel between an author and a militant figure who was directly responsible for the deaths of thousands of people in international terrorist attacks.

When the Archbishop of Canterbury's office initially announced the decision to grant Ashrafi the recognition, Lambeth Palace issued high praise for his work. The institution commended him as an outstanding ambassador of interfaith harmony within Pakistan, describing him as a figure widely known for his dedication and commitment to promoting religious tolerance across diverse faith traditions.

In setting out the core rationale behind the award, the Archbishop's representatives specifically highlighted Ashrafi’s positive intervention in the 2012 legal case of Rimsha Masih. In that prominent incident, the cleric stepped forward to defend a young Pakistani Christian girl who had been falsely accused of violating the country's strict blasphemy statutes.

However, the public outcry surrounding the cleric's background reached well beyond his past commentary regarding Bin Laden. Human rights campaigners, legal observers, and religious freedom advocates have pointed to Ashrafi’s longstanding and vocal public endorsement of Pakistan’s controversial blasphemy laws, which remain a subject of deep concern.

Pakistan's blasphemy legislation has led to the formal prosecution of an estimated 2,000 people since the late 1980s. Statistical records indicate that the implementation of these punitive laws has fallen with disproportionate severity upon religious minority communities, especially Christian and Ahmadi citizens, while also being used against a substantial number of individuals from the majority Sunni Muslim population.

Defending his continuing support for the contentious legal framework, Ashrafi has claimed that Pakistan's blasphemy statutes actually save human lives in practice. According to his perspective, the existence of formal statutory procedures serves as a vital safeguard that prevents members of the general public from engaging in vigilante violence and taking retributive justice into their own hands.

Nevertheless, Ashrafi's claims stand in sharp contrast to the documented findings of major global monitoring groups. Human Rights Watch reported last year that the nation's blasphemy laws serve to entrench and perpetuate systemic religious discrimination, noting that the statutes are frequently manipulated to target the poor and minority groups in unlawful land grabs and forced evictions.

As a consequence of these pervasive systemic abuses, Human Rights Watch has persistently urged the Pakistani government to carry out urgent and comprehensive legislative reforms. The organisation warned that without decisive statutory changes, the blasphemy laws will continue to be weaponised by powerful interests to persecute and attack marginalized communities across the country.