Dr Sugden
Good afternoon, sir. Let me ask you, was the Church of Pakistan aware of Tahir Ashrafi’s previous remarks praising Osama bin Laden and his article Defending the Blasphemy Laws?
Bishop Marshall
No, that is a long time ago. Ever since that time he has come alongside the Christian community and communities of other faiths. He’s done a tremendous work. He has really stood by us. When Jaranwala happened [ On August 16, 2023, an enraged mob attacked and set fire to over 20 churches and scores of Christian homes in Jaranwala, Punjab, Pakistan, following false allegations of blasphemy against two Christian residents Ed. ] he went with me. A second day we were there he took a big risk, supported us and openly took others. He remained there for several hours. He made successive trips and he spoke to the government. He has been amazing.
For the blasphemy laws, whenever we have approached him, he has gone with us to bring reconciliation or conciliation or to see that the cases are fairly heard, that people are not falsely accused of blasphemy. In fact, he has been instrumental in releasing many people before the mob can lynch them.
His services are so many, you know, and he has been very good to us. He also, by the way, met Justin Welby when he was here. He provided security for his trip, especially going to Peshawar when everybody said that Peshawar is not safe, and he said, “I take the responsibility”, and he did, through the army and through other channels. I was with them. But he was the one who provided the security against a lot of other people who were saying that he should not go to Peshawar. He also helped us in Islamabad and other places that we went. His services are many.
Dr Sugden
Has this put him at personal risk?
Bishop Marshall
I think the way he has gone for the minorities and especially for Christians, yes, many times people hated him for that, but he has openly declared that ‘I will, I want to serve communities like this’. He especially helped in the Rimsha case. There was a young girl with Down’s Syndrome who was accused of blasphemy. He went all out to protect her and to speak out on our behalf.
Dr Sugden
Why do you think he does this?
Bishop Marshall
I think it is due to his contact with Christians. Over the years he has seen the need to be in that position where he can contribute. He has made some very good friends with Christians who have also received him with open arms. He also wants to promote interreligious harmony in the country. The Government recognizes him for that. He is head of the official peace committee, started by the Government. The Prime Minister is also part of that.
Dr Sugden
Would you have expected Justin Welby to have said something about this situation before now?
Bishop Marshall
I don’t know, but he was very pleased. Just before Maulana Ashrafi received the award, Justin Welby received him in his home with his wife, his daughter and his son and I received a gracious message from Welby. He was very very grateful and very happy that Maulana Ashrafi came to see him and that he had received this award. Justin had had him over for dinner and they had a long conversation and he was very very pleased with that. Because in fact when Justin Welby was visiting Pakistan the conversation about nominating him was initiated and I supported it. And from that time on, I think the process started. Canterbury had the time and ought to have done due diligence if they wanted to or if they had questions. But right at the end, I mean, it was so unfair.
Dr Sugden
So do you think in light of what has come to light about what he said, had they done due diligence previously, then the award should not have been given?
Bishop Marshall
I wish they would have done that and they should have very quietly easily withdrawn it, no question. Nobody would have been upset but they obviously didn’t do it that way. They could not face the pressure.
This is so unfair because we know many Muslim clerics and leaders who are received in the West and who had a similar past. But that should not be made an excuse. People change, and he has definitely demonstrated deep respect for Christians which has to count for something! He has in many ways gone back on that and said that he no longer supports that position. His statement is clear as head of the Peace Committee.
Dr Sugden
And they did not consult you after the award was given or after they’d done the due diligence. They didn’t consult you before making the award or withdrawing it.
Bishop Marshall
They only tried to inform me after the decision was made: I pleaded with them not to go ahead [with the withdrawal] , they said “No, well, we are consulting”. In other words, they had made-up their mind by the time they consulted with me and they did not respond after that.
Dr Sugden
What’s been the effect of all this on Christians in Pakistan and their relations with Muslims?
Bishop Marshall
First of all, we’ve been deeply humiliated. For Maulana, people are saying ‘ see how the Christians have treated you’ and worse! And it’s very embarrassing for him and for his family, because the news is everywhere. And for us also. It will affect our relationships. He trusted Canterbury as a Church office and took his wife and daughter there. This is a highest offense against him and us!
We have lost confidence and standing as a a national or international community in our own country to our own members, friends and partners. Whenever we invite our interfaith partners this will have left a lingering and awkward pain. or other people. People will make reference to this again and again. I wish this had not happened.
It also will have grass roots impact. People will deal with the fall out in the every day.
Dr Sugden
So in a shame culture, this is very powerful.
Bishop Marshall
Absolutely, absolutely. But also in an interfaith environment of hard work in building relationships. Our relationships are based on responsibility and care. And I think it has strained our relationship with Lambeth also. The other bishops are also standing with me in condemning this irresponsible fall out
Dr Sugden
So your relationships with Canterbury and the Communion have been damaged as well.
Bishop Marshall
Absolutely – not the communion but Lambeth. There are many in the communion who must be appalled .
Can we trust Lambeth? Because if you invite somebody who is in the forefront of Christian-Muslim relations, interfaith relations, building up contact, speaking on our behalf almost every day and to the government or to the community circles, and you invite him or her, honour them, and then you take that honour away. Then you insult not only them but the millions they represent!
Dr Sugden
What should the Archbishop of Canterbury do now?
Speaker 2
She should apologize to the Church of Pakistan and to Maulana Ashrafi because it was not a proper way of doing due diligence or treating a scholar from another country. He is very well respected throughout the Middle East. He is the government’s representative like an ambassador to the Muslim countries. He’s not an ordinary cleric. This really will have a far-reaching effect on our relationships.
Dr Sugden
What will you be able to do to repair it?
Bishop Marshall.
I will go to him and say sorry. We will maintain and sustain our friendships and for us that means hard work. Many people held those sentiments, the whole world has moved on and we have to strive for change. And I mean, our culture and our perspective is totally different on these things.
Dr Sugden
So you will make a formal apology to him.
Bishop Marshall
I will, yes. I’ve already done that. But it will take time.
Dr Sugden
Have you met him?
Bishop Marshall
No, but we are planning to go along with the bishops and we’ll go and say sorry for what Lambeth has done.
We are adamant we are waiting for an apology
Dr Mulhally has acted naively and Lambeth have shown they do not understand the Middle East situation and the dynamics of our culture and Middle Eastern cultures. With God’s grace and prayers of the Body of Christ we will work toward setting this right and keep trying to live in a way that we include and embrace our neighbour.
]]>The room was silent. With minutes remaining, seventy young Christians were privately pleading with God to prevent MPs from voting to legalise suicide.
Days prior, some weren’t even sure euthanasia was a gospel issue. Others didn’t realise the magnitude of abortion, the challenge of Islam or the impact Christianity has had on this nation.
But that all changed in one week.
A week filled with intensive teaching from experts on abortion, Islam, cultural Marxism and gender ideology, testimonies from our courageous clients and rich fellowship all culminated in ‘a life changing week’ for the next generation of Christian leaders.
The silence in the room continued….
“We’ve won!!”
The room erupted with joy and praise and worship. There were tears, shouts, even screams of joy; fists raised in solidarity as utter relief washed over the group.
God came through. The assisted suicide bill fell.
After a week of exhorting them to be faithful in standing up for Jesus and God’s pattern in public life, they were shown the fruit that comes when you stand against injustice.
The sweet nectar of kingdom victory is a taste we trust they’ll commit their lives to pursuing.
It’s trajectory changing moments like these that have driven us to run the Wilberforce Academy for 16 years.
]]>A two-year-old child with disabilities has been euthanised in the Netherlands, in a case that a committee determined was ‘handled well’.
The anonymous toddler, who had brain damage and cerebral palsy, was the first young child to be killed after the country expanded its euthanasia programme to under-12s in 2024.
In an official assessment of the child’s death, which was carried out last year, doctors claimed that there was “no reasonable way to reduce or end the child’s suffering other than by termination of the child’s life”.
But the review reveals that some medics who assessed the child believed that there were “still reasonable alternatives, such as palliative options and other medications”. The Public Prosecution Service will also review the case.
‘Disturbing’
Pro-life group Live Action commented: “This child’s disabilities were not the problem. The society that would rather put him to death than care for him is.”
]]>Many of Britain’s institutions are being destroyed from within by leaders who do not seem to understand what they are for. But even by those standards, the Church of England is a special case, as shown by its decision to spend the 25th anniversary of 9/11 giving a supporter of Osama bin Laden a prize for ‘reconciliation and interfaith cooperation.’
The tragedy of the Church of England – and it is a tragedy – is that we have seldom been in greater need of spiritual and moral leadership. As Matthew Arnold’s famous Dover Beach, lamenting the Sea of Faith’s ‘melancholy, long, withdrawing roar,’ puts it: ‘We are here as on a darkling plain/ Swept with confused alarms of struggle and fight/ Where ignorant armies clash by night.’ If that was so in Arnold’s 1850s, how much more true it is now.
Yet the award of the Hubert Walter prize to the Pakistani cleric Hafiz Tahir Ashrafi is the latest evidence that the Church is not capable of providing that leadership, because it does not know what it is for. Ashrafi, as a three-minute Google search would have found, gave bin Laden the honorific title of Saifullah, or Sword of God, in 2007, in response to the knighting of Salman Rushdie. As the renowned champion of reconciliation and peace explained: ‘If a blasphemer can be given the title ‘Sir’ by the West… then a mujahid who has been fighting for Islam against the Russians, Americans and British must be given the lofty title of Islam, Saifullah.’
Read also: Is Mullally’s Failure the Last Straw that Breaks the Back of the Church of England? by Gavin Ashenden
]]>There are some news stories that, if they came from the pen of a Right-wing satirist, would be considered a bit too on the nose. The revelation that on the 25th anniversary of 9/11, Sarah Mullally, the first female Archbishop of Canterbury, gave an award for interfaith work to an Muslim cleric, only to withdraw the award a week later after the cleric in question was found to have praised Osama bin Laden, is firmly in that category.
The accompanying photo, showing a somewhat uncomfortable-looking Mullally handing over the certificate next to Ashrafi’s wife, who is wearing a niqab, is unavoidably redolent of a kind of cringing liberalism. There is a whiff of hypocrisy in the air, given Mullally’s professed commitment to “combatting misogyny”.
Interfaith dialogue and cooperation are a necessity in a religiously diverse country such as modern Britain. That is especially the case when it comes to Christianity and Islam — by far the two most widely practised religions in the UK. St Paul himself told Christians: “If it is possible, as much as it depends on you, live peaceably with all men.”
Problems start to arise when the dialogue is a one-way street, when the admirable instinct to maintain civil peace and an atmosphere of tolerant pluralism mutates — on the Christian side, at least — into a habit of self-abnegation. We see this, for example, in the growing trend for churches and cathedrals to host iftar ceremonies during Ramadan. This is defended as simple neighbourliness, but the iftar is not merely a shared meal or an opportunity for community conviviality. It is a specifically religious ceremony.
]]>The Irish elites have turned on Sheeran because he refuses to hate the Jewish State as ferally and rabidly as they do.
Every day is an uphill struggle to not feel ashamed of being Irish. Watching the land of Swift, Joyce and Wilde become the land of Kneecap, Sally Rooney and infinity tits in keffiyehs would shatter even the hardest Irish heart. This week has been especially challenging. Dublin’s insufferably smug media class has risen up like a racket of demented banshees against – wait for it – Ed Sheeran. His crime? He refuses to hate the Jewish State as ferally and rabidly as they do.
The Sheeranphobia that has swept the Emerald Isle is insane. Five minutes ago Sheeran was being celebrated in Ireland as the ‘culturally Irish’ penner of popular if vanilla love songs. Now he’s damned as a ‘gutless coward’ and an ‘extreme disappointment’ who should ‘never feel welcome in Ireland again’. Got that? Unless you bow and scrape before the Palestine cult and gorge on all its filthy falsehoods about Israel, Ireland will blacklist you. McCarthyism in a tricolour balaclava.
It all springs from the Macklemore scandal. The irritant rapper famous for his 14-year-old song ‘Thrift Shop’ and his Pavlovian wails of ‘Free Palestine’ was dropped from Sheeran’s US tour after stadium bosses balked at his Israel-bashing. All of Sheeran’s other support acts and even his house band – Irish group Beoga – walked out in solidarity with Macklemore. Sheeran’s statement saying he hates the ‘suffering’ on ‘both sides’ in the Israel-Gaza war made things worse. Doesn’t he know that sympathy for the Jews who were raped and butchered by the Islamofascists of Hamas is tantamount to a thoughtcrime in virtuous circles? Educate yourself, Ed.
]]>The campaigner for single-sex NHS changing rooms is suing the Royal College of Nursing, claiming she was turned away when she needed support
There is a certain steel about Sandie Peggie. “I do feel like a poster girl,” she said. “I’m kind of glad that I’m at the forefront of it.”
Three years ago Peggie, a senior nurse, objected to a transgender doctor, Beth Upton, using a female changing room at the A&E department in Victoria Hospital in Kirkcaldy, where she worked. Upton was biologically male but identified as a woman.
After a confrontation between Peggie and Upton just before Christmas 2023, NHS Fife suspended Peggie for alleged “unwanted behaviour”, pending an investigation.
While waiting for the outcome of the disciplinary action, Peggie took NHS Fife and Upton to an employment tribunal, claiming she was the victim of workplace discrimination and harassment. The tribunal hearings, held mainly in February and July last year, made Peggie a household name. “Infamous,” she adds, with a smile.
In December last year, the tribunal panel ruled that NHS Fife had harassed Peggie via four procedural failings, but her main claims of discrimination and victimisation were dismissed. Peggie’s appeal will be heard next year. Now her attention is focused on a parallel legal claim she made against her union, the Royal College of Nursing (RCN). The 52-year-old is claiming the RCN’s failure to properly back her legal challenge against NHS Fife was an act of discrimination.
]]>Senior Conservatives have intervened in the growing controversy over the admission of biological males to female psychiatric wards operated by Greater Manchester Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust.
Shadow Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, Damian Hinds, and Shadow Minister for Women and Equalities, Joy Morrissey, have written to the Trust’s chief executive, demanding urgent answers about safeguarding, the recording of biological sex and whether female patients can receive same-sex intimate care without having to justify their request.
Their intervention follows reports that a biologically male patient was admitted to a female psychiatric ward and, despite complaints about the patient’s behaviour, including an allegation that the patient exposed himself to vulnerable women, was returned to the female ward after initially being moved.
In their letter, the MPs describe the allegations as “particularly disturbing”, pointing out that many female psychiatric inpatients are detained, may have experienced sexual or domestic violence and may not be able to advocate effectively for their safety and dignity.
The intervention comes as a senior doctor and consultant psychiatrist, anonymised as Dr A, launched legal action against the Trust, alleging that it dismissed serious safeguarding concerns over biologically male patients who identify as women being admitted to female psychiatric wards.
Dr A, who is supported by the Christian Legal Centre, says vulnerable women, including survivors of sexual violence, have been detained on wards under policies that allow biological males to access female accommodation, toilets, showers and bathing facilities on the basis of gender identity or presentation.
]]>Leeds Minster (Church of England) has displayed a tapestry of a list of names of those killed in the Gaza conflict. Apparently, the names were stitched onto cloth in a spirit of ‘commitment to peace and interfaith solidarity’. But, of course, they only included Palestinian (ie Muslim) names.
The tapestry was put on display at Leeds Minster at the start of the Jewish New Year. Nice timing. And oops, the list contained the names of known Jihadi terrorists. When a local Jewish community group pointed this out, the minister eventually removed the panels which contained the names of terrorists.
Why does this keep happening? What’s the liberal Anglican obsession with Islam? As no doubt you heard, earlier this week, the Archbishop of Canterbury was forced to withdraw an ‘interfaith’ award she gave on the 25th anniversary of 9/11 to a Muslim Cleric who, it turned out, had praised Osama bin Laden.
By the way, as a side note, when the cleric received the award from Dame Sarah Mullally, he was photographed alongside his wife. She was covered head to foot in black with only her eyes showing. What was it Dame Sarah said, when first installed, about tackling misogyny?
Why are liberal Christians so desperate to cuddle up to Islam? The problem is not that Christians speak to Muslims. We should. Muslims are our neighbours. We should love them, serve them, befriend them and tell them about Jesus Christ. The problem is what happens when so-called Christians lose confidence in the gospel.
]]>In July the present General Synod of the Church of England came to an end. A new one will be elected in the autumn and inaugurated by the King in November. A key part of its agenda will be to consider the unfinished business concerning marriage and human sexuality left over from the Prayers of Love and Faith process which formed a central part of the business of the previous Synod.
The problem that the new Synod will face in dealing with this unfinished business from the last Synod was helpfully articulated by Canon Vaughan Roberts in his speech in opposition to the private member’s motion put forward by Professor Helen King calling for Synod to agree ‘that there are no fundamental objections to being in a committed, faithful, intimate same-sex relationship, and that such a relationship can be entirely compatible with Christian discipleship.’
In his speech against this motion, which, in an amended form, was eventually lost by three votes in the House of Bishops, Roberts declared that it would be a mistake to think that Synod could simply affirm both those who engaged in sexually active same-sex relationships because they believe that God approves of them, and those like him who conscientiously refuse to engage in them because they believe that God opposes them.
He said, ‘These are first order issues on both sides of these debates. We do not agree. We will not agree. And we will not meet in the middle. And it will not be possible to affirm both – because in affirming one you are not going to affirm the other. In affirming one kind of lifestyle you are not going to affirm my kind of lifestyle. You will deeply discourage me. Let’s face reality – this amended motion attempts to affirm everyone – but let’s face reality. We will not make progress in the next quinquennium unless we recognise we can’t do that.’
So how might the next Synod make progress in the next five years based on a recognition that there are those in the Church of England who hold fundamentally opposed positions on the matter? Is there a way of allowing both sides to achieve what they want?
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