Archbishop forced to scrap 9/11 award for bin Laden praiser

Dame Sarah Mullally stood in Lambeth Palace’s Great Hall on September 11, 2026, and presented the Hubert Walter Award for Reconciliation and Interfaith Cooperation to Hafiz Muhammad Tahir Mehmood Ashrafi. The ceremony fell on the 25th anniversary of the attacks that killed 2,977 people, including 67 British citizens. Lambeth Palace posted a photograph that day showing the new Archbishop of Canterbury with the chairman of the Pakistan Ulema Council.

Six days later, just before 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, September 17, the palace withdrew the honor.

The decision followed the resurfacing of remarks Ashrafi made in 2007 after Britain knighted Salman Rushdie. Speaking then as chairman of the Pakistan Ulema Council, Ashrafi told AFP: “We are pleased to award the title of Saifullah (Sword of Allah) 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.” In comments reported by Reuters he added: “If a blasphemer can be given the title ‘Sir’ by the West… then a mujahid who has been fighting for Islam against the Russians, Americans and British must be given the lofty title of Islam, Saifullah.” Saifullah means Sword of God, or Sword of Allah.

Nick Timothy, the shadow justice secretary, stated the failure without ornament. “The naivety of the Archbishop in presenting an award to someone who openly praised Osama bin Laden is staggering – and on the anniversary of 9/11, too.” He went on: “Our leaders must face up to the reality that not all cultures are based on the same foundations as ours, and not all share our desire for co-operation and freedom. Western political and religious leaders should stand up vigorously for our own values and achievements, rather than apologising for our history or celebrating those who seek to do us harm.”

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage asked why the Archbishop of Canterbury was giving an award to a man who praised Osama bin Laden. Robert Jenrick called the award a “catastrophic error” and said it must prompt “a total rethinking of how the Church of England operates.” The Church, he said, “should prioritise Christian worshippers and stop kowtowing to Islamists.” Danny Kruger said the Church of England is “out of touch with the country and with its own mission,” adding that the church exists to “defend and promote the Protestant Reformed religion, part of the universal Christian church” and that he was “not sure where giving awards to radical Muslim clerics fits in that.”

Alejandro Sanchez of the National Secular Society said: “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 judgement and is an insult to the victims of 9/11 and their families. Interfaith engagement must not mean overlooking support for extremism.”

Travis Frain, a survivor of the 2017 Westminster Bridge terror attack and founder of the Resilience in Unity Project, called the decision a “grave misjudgment” by the Church, “made even more egregious by the fact that this award was given on the 25th Anniversary of the September 11th Attacks.” Tim Dieppe, head of public policy at Christian Concern, said: “The absurdity of this beggars belief. How can a Christian leader give an award for reconciliation to someone who has honoured Osama Bin Laden? To someone who supports the draconian blasphemy laws in Pakistan which are a source of persecution of Christians?” The Rev. Dr. Ian Paul, an Anglican theologian and member of the General Synod, said members of the Church of England “will struggle to make sense of this in the light of his past statements about blasphemy, the death penalty, and suicide bombings,” and that the episode “will do harm both to the confidence of Anglicans in their own church and to the reputation of the Church of England among both its critics and its supporters.”

Lambeth Palace first stonewalled questions, then said it was “urgently reviewing this matter.” Its Thursday evening statement confirmed the withdrawal in spare language: “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. We have contacted Imam Ashrafi to make him aware of this decision.”

The palace restated the original case for the honor in its own terms. The award had been given for Ashrafi’s “longstanding support for religious minorities in Pakistan, particularly the Christian community – support that is valued by many Christians in Pakistan including its Anglican Church.” It added: “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.” Breitbart headlined the climb-down directly: “Church Cancels Interfaith Prize Given to Imam Who ‘Praised’ Bin Laden.”

Ashrafi’s side answered on the record. He told the BBC, in reporting by Aleem Maqbool, that the 2007 remarks had been “totally taken out of context” and that the backlash was “an unfair campaign.” A spokesperson said the comparison was not an endorsement of bin Laden but was made “in the context of explaining the hurt felt by many Muslims over the British honour given to Salman Rushdie,” and that the title had not actually been bestowed. Representatives pointed to what they described as a longstanding record against terrorism and violent extremism. On the same day as the Lambeth ceremony, Church of Pakistan Archbishop Dr. Azad Marshall presented Ashrafi with a separate Global Peace Award.

Lambeth Palace had cited Ashrafi’s 2012 intervention in the Rimsha Masih case, involving a young Christian girl in Pakistan falsely accused of blasphemy. That citation sits beside his support for Pakistan’s blasphemy laws. Those laws have led to roughly 2,000 prosecutions since the late 1980s and Human Rights Watch has said they perpetuate religious discrimination and are used to target the poor and minorities. BBC reporting noted that the laws have swept up a disproportionately high number of Pakistan’s minority Christians and Ahmadis.

Ashrafi was one of 27 recipients of Lambeth Awards this year, honors the Archbishop’s office presents for contributions to the Church of England, the Anglican Communion and wider society. The palace statement withdrawing his award contained no apology. How the remaining names on that list of 27 were vetted, and what standard now governs an interfaith prize when past public praise for the architect of September 11 stands beside claims of minority protection, is the decision still before Lambeth Palace.