Pakistani Christians have been left fearful after Lambeth Palace first gave an award to a Pakistani cleric – then withdrew it after they discovered he had praised Osama bin Laden. The perceived humiliation of the award being withdrawn has led to Pakistani Christians fearing a backlash. Clearly, Lambeth Palace assumed Hafiz Muhammad Tahir Mehmood Ashrafi was a liberal Muslim – and got it badly wrong.

This article seeks to provide some guidance to help avoid such situations in the future.

What actually is a liberal Muslim?

In the west devout (as opposed to nominal) Muslims can broadly be categorised as either:

a) traditionalist i.e. following the traditional forms of devotional Islam generations have followed in countries such as Pakistan, India and Bangladesh. Although, they often view shari’a as a romantic ideal to be aspired to, they can at times be swayed towards more radical views by issues such as Gaza.

b) radical Islamists – who seek to bring about a modern Islamic state governed by shari’a.

c) liberal Muslims who seek to practise a form of devotional Islam which is consciously compatible with values such as democracy, human rights, freedom of speech and religion etc. 

Whilst the UK Muslim community contains substantial proportions of all three, this is NOT the case in Islamic countries such as Pakistan. In fact, one of the most revered figures in Pakistan is Mawdudi (1903-79)– one of the founding father of modern Islamism.

Unlike the UK, in Pakistan liberal Muslims are a tiny number, almost entirely confined to an educated liberal elite. Very occasionally – a liberal Muslim in Pakistan puts their head above the parapet – and speaks out for the Christian minority. Salman Taseer – the liberal Muslim governor of Punjab province did that when he spoke up for Asia Bibi and called for reform of Pakistan’s Islamic blasphemy laws. For radical Islamists just criticising Islamic blasphemy laws is itself an act of blasphemy – which is why Mumtaz Qadri, who was actually governor Taseer's police bodyguard assassinated him in 2011.

What that means in practice is that there are no publicly visible liberal Islamic clerics in Pakistan. There has been the odd one in the past – but they have generally had to flee to the West in fear if their lives.

Who is Hafiz Muhammad Tahir Mehmood Ashrafi?

Ashrafi is a prominent Islamic cleric and former member of Pakistan’s Council of Islamic Ideology (CIU), whose constitutional role is to strike down any parliamentary laws it deems to be incompatible with sharia. The CIU effectively acts as a ratchet – ensuring the country moves ever closer to becoming an Islamic state governed by shari’a, which can never be repealed. He now chairs the Pakistani Ulema Council (Ulema refers to senior Islamic scholars) which was set up to try to de-escalate violence between different types of Muslims in Pakistan.

He is also quite a political figure and in 2022 he was appointed Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Religious Affairs. In January this year the Prime Minister also made him national Coordinator for Religious Harmony. 

As a de facto spokesman for the Pakistan government on inter-faith relations Ashrafi also seeks to present a positive image of the country to the West. In that capacity he has become something of a spin doctor for both the Pakistan government and Pakistani Islam. For example, in April 2022 he claimed that during the previous 15 months there had not been a single case registered with the police which represented a misuse of Pakistan’s blasphemy laws. In fact, the 2023 report of Pakistan's Human Rights Commission noted that the previous year there had been 171 people who had been accused of Islamic blasphemy. He also publicly dismissed a 2023 report on Pakistan by the US Commission on International Religious Freedom as “baseless” and claimed there was “no misuse” of the blasphemy law in Pakistan.

However, presenting that positive view of Pakistani Islam also provides some of the context in which we should probably understand why In 2012 he spoke out in support of Rimsha Masih, an 11 year old mentally disabled Christian girl charged with desecrating the Qur’an. However, this did not mean he was calling for reform of Islamic blasphemy laws – as Salman Taseer had, as shari’a requires someone to be mentally competent to commit Islamic blasphemy.

However, despite all of this, Ashrafi is someone who Pakistani Christian leaders seeking to navigate the political realities of being a relatively powerless minority in an Islamic country have sometimes approached for help. This is all part of the complex web that Christian minorities in Islamic countries have to negotiate. One finds for example, Christian leaders in Lebanon building relationships with Hezbollah, because they hold considerable power and that is what is necessary to do to survive. But that does not negate the fact that Hezbollah’s vision for society is broadly similar to Iran’s where Christians suffer widespread and significant persecution.

However, none of this makes Ashrafi a liberal Muslim.

How did this happen?

So, with this background – how did Lambeth Palace fail to even notice that Ashrafi was not the liberal Muslim cleric they appear to have naively assumed he was?

The first thing that needs to be said is that this is not the first time that Lambeth Palace has got itself into this sort of mess, although this time it risks causing real harm to Christians in Pakistan.

Back in 2016 Archbishop Justin Welby welcomed two Pakistani clerics to Lambeth Palace, Muhammad Naqib ur Rehman and Hassan Haseeb ur Rehman. Both men had been prominent in large scale pro-blasphemy law demonstrations which had just occurred in Pakistan. These had called for the immediate execution of Pakistani Christian Aisa Bibi and for Mumtaz Qadri, the murderer of liberal Muslim politician Salman Taseer who had spoken up for her, to be declared an Islamic martyr and national hero.

Why did Lambeth Palace make the same mistake again?

The circumstances in this latest case originated in Archbishop Welby’s visit Pakistan following the riots against Christians in Jaranwala in 2023. The visit had been organised by the Anglican Church of Pakistan with the assistance of Ashrafi, in his role as the Pakistan Prime Minister’s Special Assistant on Religious Affairs and chairman of the Pakistan Ulema Council (PUC).

It was his assistance to the then Archbishop of Canterbury on that visit that led to him being given the Lambeth Palace award for inter-faith relations.

That Lambeth Palace has now twice honoured clerics who support Pakistan’s blasphemy laws with receptions at Lambeth Palace suggests that they have brought into the ‘Islam is a religion of peace’ narrative. Tony Blair espoused this immediately after the 9/11 attacks when he told the UK parliament that those attacks were “wholly contrary to the true teaching of Islam”.

 In fact, throughout Islamic history there have been two broad streams of Islamic practice, one which has focused primarily on inward devotional practice and one which has emphasised jihad against non-Muslims and the enforcement of shari’a.

Jesus warned his disciples

“I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves.” (Matthew 10:16)

Lambeth Palace would do well to reflect on those words - as they are foundational to understanding how it should relate to the persecuted church.

Pray for Christians in Pakistan