A Pakistan Muslim cleric Hafiz Muhammed Tahir Mahood Ashrati was awarded the Hubert Walter Award for reconciliation and interfaith cooperation on the 11th of September 2026, by Archbishop Sarah Mullally, the Archbishop of Canterbury.
The award was presented to him at Lambeth Palace was presented to him at Lambeth Palace by Archbishop Sarah Mullaly, the Archbishop of Canterbury, at a Lambeth Award Ceremony.
The award was presented to him in recognition of his long standing support for religious minorities, mostly the christian communities.
However the award was withdrawn after resurfacing the cleric’s past comment praising Osama Biladen, the Mastermind of the 9/11 (The September 11 attacks commonly known as the 9/11 were a series of coordinated terrorist attacks by alQaeda against the United States on September 11, 2001).
Hafiz Muhammad Tahir Mehmood Ashrafi as Head of Islamic Clerics and Scholars Ulema Council Pakistan, titled the terrorist “Saifullah” for “serving Muslims by waging jihad against infidels”.
According to Lambeth Palace “previous comments made by Imam Ashrafi have come to light that” led them to “reconsider this award”, and “we can now confirm today that the award has been withdrawn”.
In response to the incident Mr. Jones publicly criticised the palace saying “previous comments made by Imam Ashrafi have come to light that” led them to “reconsider this award”, and “we can now confirm today that the award has been withdrawn”.
He said: “I’m absolutely horrified. I wear my faith quite quietly, I attend church every Sunday whenever I can, and the thing I find utterly strange is how embarrassed our church leaders are to even talk about Christianity, or even live any Christian values.”
“The last Archbishop only five minutes ago had to resign for covering up child abuse, and then our current Archbishop has reached out with this completely unnecessary friendship award on the 25th anniversary of 9/11 no less, for an individual that praised Osama bin laden, and recently called October the 7th Massacre leaders ‘freedom fighters’.”
Mr Jones also commented on the Archbishop’s silence on Christian massacre in Nigeria.
He also said: “This is an individual Archbishop who says that she’s going to fight against misogyny wherever she sees it. Well, she’s done nothing but welcome a man that praised October the 7th, where women were massacred and raped at a music festival.
“And as we see here, she cares so much about misogyny that she’s got no problem having a photo taken next to a woman who’s wrapped like a sarcophagus because she’s not allowed to show her own face or even her eyes in a place of worship. I’m completely astonished.”
Tim DP, head of public policy at Christian Concern: “I think she needs to resign I think she’s brought the whole of the Church of England into disrepute. by giving this award everybody is absolutely shocked, it makes a mockery of the institution being an archbishop of Canterbury I think um she’s done so much damage to the reputation of the church uh everyone just thinks that she’s a laughingstock and the Church is laughingstock. It could hardly be more absurd. It could, you know, can you imagine a more absurd thing for her to do than to give a reconciliation award to somebody who has praised Osama bin Laden? I mean, you know, it’s hard to imagine something worse to do than this.”
Bishop Kai, “when asked for his opinion on the call for the Archbishop to resign, said “This is an absolute disaster for the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Church of England. And I confess that I am one of those that have called for her resignation. Um, I genuinely didn’t believe that she should be made Archbishop of Canterbury in the first place.”
“Not only do they present this award which should not have gone to a Muslim cleric in my opinion on the 25th anniversary of 9/11. It took the general public 30 seconds to discover his comments. But there’s a secondary uh issue here that nobody’s addressing.”
“Look at the way his wife and associate is dressed there. And this is the archbishop that came to office promising to root out misogyny in the church in Wal uh Church of England and and you know is there quite happy to present an award with two women dressed in what western society considers to be oppressive uh and very misogynistic towards women.”
