The Vatican added to world condemnation of plans by a Florida church to commemorate the September 11th attacks on the United States by burning a Koran, calling it an "outrageous" act.
The Vatican added to world condemnation of plans by a Florida church to commemorate the September 11th attacks on the United States by burning a Koran, calling it an "outrageous" act.
Leaders ranging from US secretary of state Hillary Clinton to the head of the Islamic Society of North America and the top US commander in Afghanistan have denounced plans by the pastor of a tiny Florida church to burn a copy of the Koran.
In a statement today the Vatican said it had heard with great concern of the planned commemoration of the attacks in 2001 which killed 2,752 people.
"These deplorable acts of violence, in fact, cannot be counteracted by an outrageous and grave gesture against a book considered sacred by a religious community," it said.
"Each religion, with its respective sacred books, places of worship and symbols, has the right to respect and protection.”
Pastor Terry Jones, who heads a congregation of 50 at the Dove World Outreach Centre in Gainesville, Florida, says he scheduled the Koran-burning on the anniversary of the 2001 atrocities to stop what he sees as the encroachment of Sharia in the US and because “we must send a clear message to the radical element of Islam. We will no longer be controlled and dominated by their fears and threats.”
The Obama's administration made clear that it deplored the planned event, which State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley described as "un-American."
"I am heartened by the clear and unequivocal condemnation of this disrespectful, disgraceful act that has come from American religious leaders of all faiths," US secretary of state Hillary Clinton told American Muslims at the State Department last night as she hosted an Iftar, the meal at which Muslims break their daily fast during the month of Ramadan.
US attorney general Eric Holder reportedly called the planned Florida event "idiotic" during a closed-door meeting with a small group of religious leaders.
General David Petraeus, the head of US and Nato forces in Afghanistan, said the burning could "endanger troops and it could endanger the overall effort" to stabilise the Afghan situation.
"It is precisely the kind of action the Taliban uses and could cause significant problems, not just here, but everywhere in the world we are engaged with the Islamic community," Gen Petraeus said.
The planned Koran-burning has already prompted protests in Kabul. Several hundred Afghans - mostly students from religious schools - gathered outside the Milad ul-Nabi mosque and chanted "Death to America" in anger over the plans. Protests have also been held in Indonesia.
US religious leaders, including Washington Catholic Archbishop emeritus Cardinal Theodore McCarrick and Dr Michael Kinnamon of the National Council of Churches, released a statement saying they were "alarmed by the anti-Muslim frenzy" and "appalled by such disrespect for a sacred text."
"To attack any religion in the United States is to do violence to the religious freedom of all Americans," said the religious leaders, including Rabbi David Saperstein, head of the Union for Reform Judaism, and Rabbi Julie Schonfeld of the Association of Conservative Rabbis.
Agencies