September 9, 2010 - As President Barack Obama speaks strongly against a Florida minister’s plan to burn copies of the Quran, the pastor says the burn will go on as planned – unless, that is, he gets a direct call from President Obama.
President Obama said this is nothing but an “attention-seeking” stunt by the pastor.
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According to VOA News, White House officials say they may try to contact Reverend Terry Jones directly to get him to change his plans.
There is concern that the burning of the Quran, planned as a protest against “radical Islam,” will endanger U.S. troops.
Reverend Jones has said repeatedly this week that he intends to burn Qurans on Saturday, September 11.
On Thursday he added that he would re-examiner his plan if he was contacted by officials at the White House, Pentagon, or State Department.
Attention-seeking stunt ripple effect
President Obama said publicly that burning the Quran is a destructive and dangerous act, and that the minister’s plan is an attention-seeking “stunt” that could endanger U.S. troops, but also is a valid exercise of free-speech rights under the U.S. legal system.
The protest in Florida could turn out to be a “recruitment bonanza for al-Qaida” and trigger violent counter-protests, President Obama said.
This could also backfire in another way – it could set back U.S. government’s efforts to demonstrate it is not at war with Islam, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said Thursday, but that it is at war with those who “perverted the values and beliefs of that religion.”
VOA News reported that Gibbs and other senior officials said they are discussing how to respond to Jones' hint that he might suspend his book-burning plan, out of concern that the minister's tactics could "provoke other extremists" to threaten spectacular protests in order to get attention.
In an effort to protect U.S. citizens the U.S. State Department has issued a worldwide travel alert Thursday in response to the Quran burning plans.
President Obama is not the only one concerned with the ripple effect the demonstration could have on U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan. His concerns have been echoed by the top military commander in Afghanistan, General David Petraeus, and the head of the NATO alliance, Anders Fogh Rasmussen.
Reverend Jones and his small church of 50
The pastor responsible leads the Dove World Outreach Center, a church in Gainesville, Florida. It has about 50 members. According to Rev. Jones, the action is intended to emphasize his opposition to “radical” Muslins.
Rackspace, the Internet service company that hosts the Dove center’s websites, terminated its contract with the church in response to the controversy.
The church website is no longer accessible.
A spokesman from Rackspace said the church violated the company’s policy forbidding hate speech.
In response
In response to what the pastor has done, the Council on American-Islamic Relations said Thursday it is launching an educational program called “Learn, Don’t Burn,” to counter the minister’s plans to burn 200 Qurans. They plan to distribute 200,000 more copies of the holy book free.
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki predicted that burning Qurans would be "a pretext" for extremists to carry out more killings.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has said the minister's plan is "disgraceful," and that is regrettable that such an obscure congregation can command so much attention worldwide.
Related:
Florida pastor says he will burn Qur'an despite warnings it could prompt violent reactions
Source:
VOA News
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