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/

I’m not surprised that Anglicans are moving over to the Catholic Church.

But sadly the behaviour of the female cleric indicates that she was promoted as a virtue signal rather than for her genuinely good values and respect for the CoE congregation.

The church is in a terrible mess and she is among the architects of its rapid decline.

I follow some conservative Muslim women ( all living in the West and born in the West) and their defence of blasphemy laws is that it’s only the death penalty if you leave Islam AND then criticize Islam. If you leave Islam quietly nothing should happen to you. They honestly seem to believe this is a tolerant and reasonable position.

I think virtue-signalling is the bane of our times!

It's not just irritating, provoking an eye-roll - it's pernicious and is affecting society in a real way.

I define it as: saying something which makes you look good but which costs you nothing personally - not putting your money where your mouth is.

Ricky Gervais bravely wages war against virtue-signallers.

It's particularly a feature of actors and other celebrities who have access to microphones...up they get to tell us how we should feel and behave, while not doing anything in particular themselves. And who are they, anyway? Why should an actor's opinion carry more weight than yours of mine?

It makes public figures afraid to express real opinions and concerns - look at what happened to J K Rowling! And I find nowadays, getting anyone, politicians, police officers etc to say what they actually mean is very rare indeed. They don't want to express any opinion which doesn't align with the virtue-signalling minority. It's not healthy for our democracy.

Regardless of sex there is no doubt that whoever the ABC was they would promote progressive left values heavily, and so preside over the continued decline of the CoE.

Near me, a CoE church was sold off due to its decline to a rump of elderly people. An evangelical church bought it and now it has full, thriving congregations every week of all ages. Because they do God and faith community front and Centre and they don’t do politics. Turns out, and this may shock CoE clergy. thats what people want from their religion.

its f*cking disgraceful along with appeasement of general Islamic takeover

It’s idiotic. Together with this music thing they want to do above Nelson’s tomb which his descendants and the Nelson society have protested about.

Totally agree. This will be a Muslim country in a few hundred years and the Anglican Church will have facilitated this.

Aren't they 2 different things? One is apostasy which is also punishable by death ( particularly it seems, against women) . I wonder what's happened to the Islamophobia guidance which has a very real risk attached of becoming a blasphemy law- something which is punishable by death and has led to teachers and journalists being beheaded in Europe and a teacher being under permanent police protecting in the UK?

From the article it seems the guy made the bin Laden comment in 2007 but has since done much for peaceful and interfaith relations.

I wouldn't hold something said twenty years ago, at a very difficult time, against anyone. It's the here and now that matters.

Gerry Adams redeemed himself.

Have you seen photos of women in countries like Iran before Islam dominated them?

Strange how they went from looking like your average woman walking down the street in 70's London, with such a variety of colours, designs and fashions, to completely covered in black all at once.

You know, it's almost like they had no real choice in the matter...

At a very difficult time? What 6 years after 9/11 he was so traumatised by the British state knighting one of our most successful authors he decided to equate writing a book mildly critical of Islam to murdering 3000 people? ( 12000 if you include all the people who have died since as a result)? Was the ' difficult time' because it was immediately after some other Islamist extremists murdered Londoners?

Never mind Iran. That's what Muslim communities in London looked like in the 70's and 80's. Islam has become more and more regressive over the years.

Framing the whole thing as left v. right ist part of the fundamental issue. Why would it be right wing to want to defend the philosophical basis of our culture, which is based on enlightenment principles of equality, which in turn were based on the evolution of Christian thought. I used to think liberalism was based on unalienable rights, and their application to marginalised groups. Then we invented marginalised groups and turned a blind eye to illiberal behaviour as if we had to accept it to be liberal.

I'm Christian and Anglican ( not CofE) although there is no GAFCON, church near enough.
I am utterly furious with this woman. She has undone so much hard work, done by small struggling parishes who are trying, with rigid Safeguarding and community engagement to bring people to God.
Then this awful woman does this. It's Henry II all over again. "Who will rid me of this meddlesome priest"

I used to teach in a huge Birmingham girls’ comprehensive school in the 80s. There were about half Muslim girls and they wore trousers rather than skirts (as did some white British girls) but other than that, they had their heads uncovered and were basically like the other girls.

What’s happened? I mean - yes, I follow the news, but why should developments in the ME mean this kind of relaxed attitude towards clothing in this country have changed?

It’s not just in the Anglican Church- we seem to be choosing inadequate leaders in all sorts of contexts now.

As I said upthread, I think it’s the virtue-signalling society we live in. People are afraid to express strong views and lay down clear boundaries - all part of the wonder that is non-judgementalism.

Judgementalism is the way a society expresses its values - but people have been brainwashed to think it’s evil. On MN one of the worst sins is to come over as judgemental!

Yes some don’t know what we’ve got. It makes it easy to try to throw away.

I think we have waved through some very hardline clerics from Saudi Arabia and Iran who have influenced and encouraged the men in the mosques to impose this far stricter form of Islam. It's a crying shame when you remember how progressive and innovative Islam was when it came to arts and science in the middle ages and beyond. Yet people in the West think tolerance of the intolerant is all fine as long as they can virtue signal amongst their friends. It is poor communities, particularly poor Muslim women who are living in a parallel universe but who cares as long as they can show how tolerant they are.

It is likely to be much earlier than that, I estimate 20 years. Research shows it only takes a Muslim population of 20% for Islam to dominate. Israel is able to function well with around that % as it is very hardline about keeping to secular rules. Our leaders are weak and kowtow to Islam at every opportunity and so it is starting to dominate us even now at lower levels.

I am also an atheist and I feel exactly the same way.
This country is seriously losing the plot. The rest of Europe is slowly, finally, starting to realise the danger, and are starting to put counter-measures in place. I cannot see that happening in this country any time soon. We are truly stupid.

I agree.
I am really worried about my daughter’s future. REALLY worried.

Well, I am glad that they took the award away. That’s something.

But oh my goodness CofE. I support interfaith collaboration but is this really what you should be doing right now?

There has been abuse scandal after abuse scandal, from John Smyth to Mike Pilivachi. Have you fully implemented the recommendations of the Makin review? Has there been real change?

Once all that is done then begin issuing naive awards to people who are neither parishioner or priest.

Sorry you are completely right. Its apostasy.

What research backs up your claim? Actual proper research, not just some bollocks posted on Twitter?