The firestorm surrounding Archbishop of Canterbury Sarah Mullally isn’t dying down. It’s spreading.
What began as outrage over a controversial interfaith award presented on the 25th anniversary of 9/11 has now erupted into something much bigger: thousands are backing a petition demanding the leader of the Church of England step down.
According to The Christian Post, a Change.org petition that calls for Mullally’s resignation has gained significant momentum after organizer Emma Ash updated it amid the controversy. Ash said about 3,000 additional signatures came in after the update, pushing the petition past 3,700 by Monday afternoon.
And the timing of this surge is impossible to ignore.
As Charisma previously reported, Mullally presented Pakistani Muslim cleric Hafiz Muhammad Tahir Mehmood Ashrafi with the Hubert Walter Award for Reconciliation and Interfaith Cooperation at Lambeth Palace on Sept. 11, the 25th anniversary of the deadliest terrorist attack on American soil.
Then his past comments about Osama bin Laden came roaring back into the spotlight.
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In 2007, Ashrafi told Reuters that the Pakistan Ulema Council decided to give bin Laden the title “Saifullah,” which means “sword of Allah,” amid outrage over Britain’s knighthood of author Salman Rushdie. He also referred to bin Laden as a “mujahid” for fighting against the United States, Russia and Britain.
Charisma reported that Travis Frain, who survived the 2017 Westminster Bridge terrorist attack, called it “a grave misjudgment by the Church.”
Six days later, Lambeth Palace withdrew the honor.
Pulling the award hasn’t extinguished the controversy.
Ash is now asking what “due diligence” was conducted before the honor was approved, according to The Christian Post. And the petition makes clear that its concerns about Mullally didn’t begin with Ashrafi.
Originally launched months earlier, it raises safeguarding concerns surrounding Mullally’s tenure as Bishop of London, pointing to former safeguarding team member Michelle Burns and the case of Father Alan Griffin, who died by suicide in 2020.
Through it all, one thing is clear: the Ashrafi controversy has poured fresh fuel onto an already-burning dispute over Mullally’s leadership.
Now the questions aren’t simply about a man receiving an award. They’re about the archbishop who handed it to him.
Abby Trivett is a writer and editor for Charisma Media and has a passion for sharing the gospel through the written word. She holds two degrees from Regent University, a B.A. in Communication with a concentration in Journalism and a Master of Arts in Journalism. She is the author of the newly released book, The Power of Suddenly: Discover How God Can Change Everything in a Moment. For interviews and media inquiries, please contact [email protected].
