Church Leader Rebuffs Quran Burn Critics

The leader of a Florida-based church which plans to hold a "Burn a Koran Day" on the 9th anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks said Monday he wasn’t going to be dissuaded by critics who say the event will incite violence and endanger U.S. troops.

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Terry Jones, senior pastor of the so-called "Dove World Outreach Center" and author of the book "Islam is of the Devil," agreed the plan to burn the Quran could provoke violent opposition but argued that was the point of his event.

"We are using this act to warn about the teaching and ideology of Islam, which we do hate as it is hateful," Jones said of the upcoming Quran burning event.

Jones told The Associated Press in a written statement that he wants to send a message to radical Muslims that the country won't be controlled "by their fears and threats."

"It is time for America to return to being America," Jones added.

But opposition continues to mount.

NATO’s top leader told reporters at a Sept. 7 breakfast meeting in Washington, D.C., the burning is a "strong contradiction of all the values we stand for and fight for."

"I think it's a disrespectful action and in general I really urge people to respect other people's faith and behave respectfully," NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said.

And Veterans of Foreign Wars National Commander Richard Eubank added to the opposition, saying the burning event will send the wrong message about America’s respect for religious freedom.

"The First Amendment may protect the pastor and his follower's right to protest, but there is nothing to be gained and everything to lose from this selfish act," Eubank in a Sept. 7 statement. "Our war is against a small number of religious extremists who kill indiscriminately and without remorse. Let's not allow an equally small number of religious extremists in America to widen the war."

The added objections came after the top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan warned that the plan to burn what Muslims simply call "the Book" could endanger U.S. troops in the country and Americans worldwide.

"Images of the burning of a Quran would undoubtedly be used by extremists in Afghanistan -- and around the world -- to inflame public opinion and incite violence," Gen. David Petraeus said in an e-mail to The Associated Press.

His comments followed a protest Monday by hundreds of Afghans over the plans by the small, evangelical Christian church that espouses anti-Islam philosophy to burn copies of the Quran on church grounds to mark the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States that provoked the Afghan war. Muslims consider the Quran to be the word of God and insist it be treated with the utmost respect, along with any printed material containing its verses or the name of Allah or the Prophet Muhammad. Any intentional damage or show of disrespect to the Quran is deeply offensive.

In 2005, 15 people died and scores were wounded in riots in Afghanistan sparked by a story in Newsweek magazine alleging interrogators at the U.S. detention center in Guantanamo Bay placed copies of the Quran in washrooms and flushed one down the toilet to get inmates to talk. Newsweek later retracted the story.

At Monday's protest, several hundred Afghans rallied outside a Kabul mosque, burning American flags and an effigy of Dove World's pastor and chanting "death to America." Members of the crowd briefly pelted a passing U.S. military convoy with stones, but were ordered to stop by rally organizers.

Two days earlier, thousands of Indonesian Muslims rallied outside the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta and in five other cities to protest the church's plans.

Petraeus warned images of burning Qurans could be used to incite anti-American sentiment similar to the pictures of prisoner abuse at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison.

"I am very concerned by the potential repercussions of the possible [Quran] burning. Even the rumor that it might take place has sparked demonstrations such as the one that took place in Kabul yesterday," Petraeus said in his message. "Were the actual burning to take place, the safety of our soldiers and civilians would be put in jeopardy and accomplishment of the mission would be made more difficult."

The U.S. Embassy in Kabul also issued a statement condemning the church's plans, saying Washington was "deeply concerned about deliberate attempts to offend members of religious or ethnic groups."

Dove World Outreach Center, which made headlines last year after distributing T-shirts that said "Islam is of the Devil," has been denied a permit to set a bonfire but has vowed to proceed with the burning. The congregation's website estimates it has about 50 members, but the church has leveraged the Internet with a Facebook page and blog devoted to its Quran-burning plans.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.