The Archbishop of Canterbury has revoked an award given to Hafiz Muhammad Tahir Mehmood Ashrafi, a Muslim cleric, over his past statement praising al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

Mr Ashrafi was honoured with the Hubert Walter Award for Reconciliation and Interfaith Cooperation at a ceremony at Lambeth Palace last Friday, which marked the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. 

However, in a statement by the office of the Archbishop of Canterbury on Thursday, the award was withdrawn, citing his previous comments praising the terrorist leader.

“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. 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,” the statement said.

It added, “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to light that have led Lambeth Palace to reconsider this award and we can now confirm today that the award has been withdrawn.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.”

Mr Ashrafi, who was head of the Pakistan Ulema Council, a group of Islamic clerics and scholars, in 2007 declared that he would honour bin Laden with the Saifullah title, meaning “Sword of God,” for “serving Muslims by waging jihad against infidels.” 

This came more than a decade after his statement lauding Mr bin Laden, the mastermind of the September 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon, which killed 2,977 people.

This year, September 11 marked the 25th anniversary of the deadly terrorist attacks, commonly known as 9/11, which took place in 2001.

Two years after the attacks, in 2003, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (KSM), the alleged mastermind of 9/11, was captured in Pakistan.

KSM has been held at the Guantanamo Bay detention facility in Cuba since 2006, while Osama bin Laden, the leader of al-Qaeda, was killed on May 2, 2011, by U.S. Navy SEALs during a raid in Abbottabad, Pakistan.

Last month, a U.S. military judge, Lt. Col. Michael Schrama, ruled that KSM and three co-defendants would stand trial in June 2028.