The Church of England has been urged to change direction after it was forced to withdraw an award for a cleric who praised Osama bin Laden and close an exhibition that memorialised Palestinian terrorists.
The controversies came only two months after the General Synod voted to engage with a document that denied Israel’s legitimacy, accused the Jewish state of being founded on ethnic cleansing and urged members of the Church not to engage with Zionists.
Jewish communal leaders, senior politicians and Christian critics have now accused the Church of repeated failures of judgment that have damaged its moral authority and its relationship with British Jews.
The Jewish Leadership Council (JLC) said the Church had “repeatedly chosen to pick a side in a distant conflict and engage with extremists, without considering the domestic consequences”.
Nick Timothy, the shadow justice secretary, said: “There is a crisis of moral leadership in the Anglican Church.”
The criticism follows two reversals in successive days. Lambeth Palace rescinded an interfaith award presented by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dame Sarah Mullally, to Pakistani cleric Hafiz Tahir Ashrafi, who had praised bin Laden. A day later, Leeds Minster shut a Gaza exhibition after receiving evidence that it included the names of “at least 18” terrorist fighters.
The incidents follow Mullally’s visit in June to the West Bank and Israel, which the JLC described as “one sided”, and the General Synod’s July vote to “hear” a document accusing Israel of genocide.
The JC understands that the Office of Chief Rabbi Sir Ephraim Mirvis made direct representations to Lambeth Palace about the Stitch Their Names Together exhibition at Leeds Minster, which included the names of terrorists among the Palestinian dead it commemorated.
When challenged about the murder of the Bibas family while being questioned about the controversial memorial last week, Leeds Minster rector, the Rev Canon Paul Maybury, said: “The history is complex.”
The Minster closed the display on Friday after the Leeds Jewish Representative Council (JRC) presented evidence that “at least” 18 names on display belonged to terrorist fighters.
The 90 panels displayed at the Minster contained 16,800 names drawn from a larger tapestry created by Irish activist Mary Evers and volunteers from pro-Palestinian groups. The complete work commemorated more than 50,000 Palestinians recorded as having died in the war by the Hamas-run health ministry, which does not distinguish between civilian and combatant deaths.
Maybury said the names came from the Gaza Health Authority’s published list and condemned Hamas’s killing of civilians and taking of hostages on October 7, 2023.
He added: “Leeds Minster seeks to work with all faith groups within the city and acknowledges that by hosting this exhibition we have harmed our relationship with some in the Jewish community for which we apologise and now seek to rebuild trust.”
Leeds JRC chair Simon Myerson said he had reported the matter to police and intended to raise it with the Charity Commission.
“It is unacceptable that we were told that due diligence had been done, whereas in fact, it had plainly not been done, but was left to us,” Myerson said.
A Board of Deputies spokesperson said: “The Church ultimately took the right decision to remove this exhibit, but it should never have had to come to this, with a church memorialising Islamic Jihad terrorists. The Church of England has increasingly become a target for activists looking to hijack its institutions to advance extreme positions.”
A JLC spokesperson said: “From the Archbishop of Canterbury’s one-sided visit to Israel and the West Bank, to the Church of England General Synod’s vote to ‘hear’ a document which portrays the Jewish state as genocidal and racist, to the Archbishop awarding an interfaith prize to an Islamist cleric who praised Osama Bin Laden, to Leeds Minster publicly memorialising terrorist combatants, the Church of England has repeatedly chosen to pick a side in a distant conflict and engage with extremists.
“It is clear that the Church must change direction if it does not wish to further damage the long-established relationship between the Church and British Jews at a time when antisemitism in the UK is not only rising but becoming increasingly extreme and violent.”
The closure came just one day after Lambeth Palace withdrew an interfaith award presented to Pakistani cleric Hafiz Tahir Ashrafi on September 11, the 25th anniversary of the attacks on the World Trade Centre and Pentagon.
Her office initially praised Ashrafi for “his outstanding work as an ambassador of interfaith harmony in Pakistan, known for his commitment to promoting religious tolerance”.
But after comments emerged in which Ashrafi had praised bin Laden, the architect of the attacks, as a “mujahid” who had “been fighting for Islam against the Russians, Americans and British”, the award was rescinded.
Ashrafi had proposed giving bin Laden the Islamic title Saifullah, or “Sword of God”, in response to Salman Rushdie’s knighthood.
Lambeth Palace had cited Ashrafi’s intervention in the 2012 case of Rimsha Masih, a young Christian girl in Pakistan falsely accused of blasphemy, as evidence of his interfaith work.
Ashrafi has, however, defended Pakistan’s blasphemy laws, which include the death penalty and have been used to target Christians and other minorities. He has claimed the laws “save lives” by preventing people from taking matters into their own hands.
Timothy told the JC: “There is a crisis of moral leadership in the Anglican Church. Not only did the Archbishop of Canterbury present an award to a known Islamic extremist on the anniversary of 9/11. Leeds Diocese also approved a tapestry commemorating 18 Hamas terrorists – it’s beyond belief. These embarrassing and disturbing episodes point to the naive liberalism of the Church leadership.”
The incidents have also drawn criticism from Christian leaders.
The Rev Dr Ian Paul, a Church of England minister, theologian and member of the General Synod who previously sat on the Archbishop’s Council, said presenting the award on the anniversary of September 11 could not have been “more disastrous, more offensive, more catastrophic – you couldn’t make it up, you couldn’t make it worse”.
He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that there had been an “extraordinary lack of judgement” and that “the leadership of the Church of England seems to be entirely out of step” with the wider Church.
Tim Dieppe, head of public policy at Christian Concern, called for Mullally to resign over the award, adding: “Whatever moral authority she once had is now severely damaged, probably irrecoverably.”
In July, the General Synod was criticised by the Chief Rabbi for voting to “hear” a document titled A Moment of Truth: Faith in a Time of Genocide, produced by Kairos Palestine, which accused Israel of genocide in Gaza.
Ashrafi’s spokesman said his remarks on bin Laden had “been presented without their proper context. His comparison was not an endorsement of bin Laden; it was made in the context of explaining the hurt felt by many Muslims over the British honour given to Salman Rushdie. His longstanding record against terrorism and violent extremism should be considered when assessing such remarks.”
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