Archbishop of Canterbury withdraws award from Muslim cleric who praised Osama bin Laden

[SigmundinaCafe]

I couldn't see another thread on this topic.

I'm a Christian (born into a Catholic family, yet not aligned to any particular Church) but am AIBU for thinking that that CoE has completely lost the plot? Everything about this stinks to high heaven. Are they not embarrassed or ashamed?

Before you get in to how dodgy this guy is, his wife can't even see properly because of how he makes her dress (see pictures of her niqab, her eyes are barely visible).

This was Nick Timothy on X yesterday:

"The Archbishop of Canterbury has given Hafiz Tahir Ashrafi an award for Reconciliation and Interfaith Cooperation. He's the chairman of the Pakistan Ulema Council - a group of Islamic scholars. The lady next to him is his wife. But why did the Church grant him this award?

Presumably not for his support for Islamic blasphemy laws in Pakistan and the death penalty that comes with them?

Nor for his reported comments that suicide bombings in Afghanistan were lawful?

(Ashrafi later claimed his comments were taken out of context, but they were deemed sufficiently serious for the NATO Secretary General to respond)

The naivety of our public institutions for engaging with people like this is staggering.

But not surprising.

We are failed time and again by liberals who believe other cultures are basically the same as ours, and the world is or wants to be just like
us."

Now I may be more sensitive than most because I'm a Christian and my husband is Jewish, but is it really too much to ask our institution of English national life not to cosey up to religious extremists who hold women in contempt (and who lets face it would be happy to see most of us dead).

He looks well fed though so clearly being the chairman of the Ulema Council pays very well!

www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ckr50lrz5e6zo

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/09/17/archbishop-award-911-anniversary-cleric-bin-laden/

It beggars belief.

I'm abit confused about this as the Church's statement said he was given the award for supporting persecuted Christians in Pakistan! But yes the photo made the ABC look ridiculous. I think the Church of England leaders keep doing these stupid things and just seem like alot of naive lefties. I am Catholic and the Pope keeps saying stupid things too.

Utterly stupid. The Archbishop should not have agreed to be photographed with another woman with her face totally covered like that.

YANBU. The ABC, and Welby before her, are a couple of out of touch naive leftie idiots who are making the CofE look evermore ridiculous and irrelevant.

Slavery reparations, nightclub collaborations at St Paul’s Cathedral, and now this. What a mess.

Its not about liberals. Its about lack of due diligence and utterly poor judgement.

It is about liberals, stupidity and incredibly bad judgment imo, and the C of E are a laughing stock

I find the whole thing really embarrassing. I find I don't want to tell people I'm Anglican.

How do you know her attire is down to her husband?

That said the Church appears to have embarrassed itself by not doing any research on who they give awards to.

Dunno what this has to do with “liberals” though. I never put religious people down as particularly liberal and most liberals I know are not particularly religious.

said he was given the award for supporting persecuted Christians in Pakistan!

That’s interesting.

I’m an atheist and I could do a better job as ABC. At least I respect the cultural traditions of the Church. A prime example of suicidal empathy- “Suicidal empathy is a concept describing excessive, misdirected compassion that harms the person or society practicing it by prioritizing emotional responses over logic and long-term survival”

I don't understand your heading. Was the award given or taken away?

This Archbishop is an utter disgrace and a failure. What a useless appointment.

Ludicrous, disgusting, shameful

He intervened in the case of a Christian girl accused of blasphemy but...
"Ashrafi claimed the blasphemy laws actually "save lives", stopping people taking matters into their own hands."
Is where the point about him supporting blasphemy laws came from. I can't work out if that's genuine pragmatism on his part/nuance since mob violence is a real thing in Pakistan and sometimes it is a case of whether the police get there before the angry crowd or not. I think I would still disagree with him, just as the human rights group quoted did. But it's different if it's just a different approach to the problem than making excuses but really being glad "blasphemers" are being punished.

The Christian Church is riven with child abuse. The last Archbishop was sacked for covering it up.

Judge not lest ye be judged.

Forget any religious aspect completely.

Ashrafi praised a man who masterminded the murder of 3,000 innocent people. His comments cannot be taken out of context.

I do wish the CoE would stop being so naiive & stupid. They make us all look foolish.

Honestly it's embarrassing and alarming.

Also confused about this!

It's a really hard word to define these days.

In the days when the Liberal Party existed, it might have been possible to come up with a basic definition but nowadays it can mean many different things depending on your own political stance.

Once it meant being open-minded, tolerant, progressive etc. Over the last few decades the left have turned 'liberal' into a dirty word - I guess they consider 'liberals' to be not left enough, or not dogmatic enough.

It's not about dogmatism, though - but other than that, I don't know what it means nowadays.

I think you can be liberal and religious as long as you don't expect to impose your beliefs on to other people.

The award was given a couple of days ago ago and very quickly withdrawn after widespread outcry once the cleric's previous remarks were publicised.

Both the giving of the award and then the subsequent withdrawal have been hot topics in a few of my WhatsApp groups.

I'm afraid the religious people I know ARE naive. They want to believe the best of everyone and sometimes compete to be the most tolerant person in the room.

And he praises him for fighting against the British. Yet here he is. Obviously NAMALT but the liberal naive left are certainly determined to facilitate the followers of Islam that are against our Western values and freedoms.

Mr Ashrafi said in June 2007: ‘We are pleased to award the title of Saifullah to Osama bin Laden after the British government’s decision to bestow the title of “Sir” on blasphemer Rushdie. This is the highest title for a Muslim warrior.’
He added: ‘If a blasphemer can be given the title “Sir” by the West, despite the fact that he’s hurt the feelings of Muslims, then a mujahid who has been fighting for Islam against the Russians, Americans and British must be given the lofty title of Islam, Saifullah.’

A female cleric and a woman entirely covered, a stark difference.

They say racists are in their algorithm bubble - these idiots need to get out occasionally and see the real world
The Arch and Helen Kremen have a lot in common -especially being blinkered in their own tiny community of yes men