You’d think her office would have done a little more research before awarding this kind of an award, especially on a date with such historical significance. But no.
The rift between Canterbury’s secular-globalist sympathies and global Anglicanism’s traditional Christian orthodoxy keeps getting wider and wider. In Africa, where Christians in the Anglican tradition are frequently martyred by hostile worldviews, there is a certain moral clarity in what it means to follow Jesus.
In the UK where the pressures are not life-or-death, moral clarity gets fuzzier. Compromise becomes more easily justified. Or it happens so incrementally that hardly anyone notices.
Until everyone notices.
We’ve covered the public scolding that Canterbury has had for abandoning ‘the faith once delivered to the saints’ (Jude 3), and the public announcement by Global Anglicans that the communion would no longer be looking to leadership from Canterbury. In short, because they believe Canterbury has abandoned the Word of God.
On no less than the anniversary of 9/11, Canterbury’s Archbishop presented an award to a Muslim cleric from Pakistan. That award has since been rescinded.
Skip back to last week. It was a small ceremony where dignitaries were being recognized for various accomplishments and contributions of note to the Church of England. The list was mostly comprised of the sorts of people you might expect. Reverend-this, Right-honourable that, Lord Professor such-and-such and there was even a ‘venerable’ or two thrown into the mix. One name stood out among the other awards.
“Hafiz Muhammad Tahir Mehmood Ashrafi, The Hubert Walter Award for Reconciliation and Interfaith Cooperation.” He’s a cleric from Pakistan. And he was being awarded for ‘longstanding support for religious minorities’. Interfaith cooperation? Longstanding support…? Seems normal enough to be nominated for an award, right?
Here’s the first part of a two-paragraph statement put out by Archbishop Mullally’s office.
Last week the Hubert Walter Award for Reconciliation and Interfaith Cooperation was presented to Maulana Hafiz Muhammad Tahir Mehmood Ashrafi in a ceremony at Lambeth Palace. The award was given for Imam 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.
What POSSIBLE reason would they have for rescinding such an eminently reasonable award, you might ask?
That’s where the story gets awkward.
Hafiz Muhammad Tahir Mehmood Ashrafi received the award for reconciliation and interfaith cooperation from Dame Sarah Mullally last week, on the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.
Lambeth Palace faced a backlash after it emerged Ashrafi praised Bin Laden – the architect of the 2001 attacks – as someone who had “been fighting for Islam against the Russians, Americans and British”, in comments from 2007.
Ashrafi also reportedly said he would give Bin Laden the title Saifullah, which means “Sword of God”. He told the BBC his remarks had been “totally taken out of context”. — BBC
Here is the REST of what the Archbishop’s office said in yesterday’s statement.
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. However, 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. We continue to pray for the Christian community in Pakistan, and for all those working for interfaith dialogue and harmony in Pakistan and around the world.
‘Previous comments’.
The couldn’t even spare a description of those comments?
Objectionable?
Incendiary?
Violent?
Nope.
The only time you ever seem to see the claws come out from the Globalist establishment class is when their ire is directed against someone with traditional values of faith or patriotism.
