MUSLIM WORLD: Concerns linger after Florida pastor says he might burn Korans after all

As America awaits to see whether Florida pastor Terry Jones and his church followers will create a bonfire of Korans this weekend, after Thursday's disconnect in talks between the anti-Muslim evangelist and a Florida imam, another drama is playing out in the Middle East, where there are profound fears that Jones could incite violence and sectarian strife and seriously harm America's ties in the region should he decide to go ahead with his plan. 

On Friday, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad described the Koran-burning event as "a Zionist plot" that contravenes the teachings of the prophets of all the world's religions, according to state television.

Though President Obama, his deputies and even some Republicans have slammed the preacher's plan to set fire to 200 copies of Islam's holy book on the lawn outside his small church in Gainesville, observers fear that images of a mound of burning holy books broadcast on Al Jazeera and other pan-Arab news channels could further inflame passions.

"We are daring the Florida church followers to burn Korans, and then the world will see who the real extremists are," Mohamed Hassan, a cleric and a lecturer of Islamic Sharia law at Egypt's Assyut College of Islamic Principles, told Babylon & Beyond. "Burning [the Koran] out of hatred and with the aim of the defaming Islam is one of the biggest insults toward the religion, God and God's words. Whoever does it should be punished with the same punishment as a Muslim who disbelieves and converts to another religion."

Shortly after he backed off from his Koran-burning plans on Thursday, Jones backtracked and said he and his followers were still considering the event after all. For now, it has been "suspended."

The commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, Gen. David H. Petraeus, sternly warned earlier this week that the act could pose a threat to his troops and instigate violence. On Thursday night, media reports began to trickle in about hundreds of young Muslim men rioting in the Afghan capital, throwing rocks and chanting "Death to America" in protest of Jones' plans. 

Worries of sectarian strife are also mounting among some Arab Christians, who say Jones and fellow Koran-burners could pit Muslims against Christians throughout the Middle East, endangering small minorities already under pressure.

"Religiously, it's forbidden, said a 52-year-old clothing importer in mainly Christian East Beirut who gave his name only as Ziad. "This spurs sectarian divisions between Islam and Christianity. It's haram [forbidden]. This could create a problem anywhere where Muslims and Christians are living together. Of course, they have to stop him."

After being largely ignored, the Koran-burning suddenly dominated editorials in Thursday's papers across the Middle East, on the eve of the Muslim holiday Eid al-Fitr, which marks the end of the holy month of Ramadan.

"The repercussions of the 9/11 attacks are still unfolding in the U.S. today," Yasser abu-Hilalah wrote in Thursday's edition of Al Ghad, a pro-government Jordanian daily. "One of their manifestations is the mad action of the crazy reverend. It is true that he is isolated and rejected. However, he is an expression of the current fear-mongering against Islam which has become a profitable political trade." 

In Iran, Jones' defiance of the widespread criticism and condemnation against his planned action topped the news bulletins on the Iranian Arabic news channel Al Alam, followed by a roundup of world reaction, including that of Obama and the Iranian foreign minister, Manoucher Mottaki, who called the act "obscene" and a "violation of Muslims' world beliefs."

At one point, Al Alam brought international affairs analyst Mahmud Ramadan on air live from Beirut. In his interview, Ramadan warned that the Koran-burning would create an "earthquake" and "shake" the Islamic, Christian and Jewish worlds.

Other observers, however, set such worries aside, stressing that the massive global protests and condemnation against Jones -- especially from the Vatican -- will head off the disaster that some fear if the Koran-burning goes ahead.

"The call to burn copies of the Koran will not succeed in fomenting sedition between Christians and Muslims," said the Qatari newspaper Al Rayah. "The call has been received with a wide range of condemnations from the Islamic and Western countries alike. The Vatican's reaction -- that condemned such a call and considered it a contradiction to faith and Christianity -- is enough."

In the wake of the extremist preachings by Jones, who claims that Islam is the work of the devil, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan weighed in on the debate on Islamophobia from a general perspective, appealing to Muslims to better stand up intellectually to those that he said are trying to smear their religion and holy book.

"When we have a holy book that describes the truth in the most beautiful way and that book has been preserved for 1,400 years, why is it that we have difficulty in explaining the message of the Koran to the world and in expressing ourselves?" the Turkish premier asked in a speech at a conference on Islamic history in Istanbul on Thursday.

"Let us not apportion blame to those who wage such dark and dirty propaganda. We are to blame, because this means that we cannot explain ourselves and that we are not trying. We must sit down and think about what we have done or are doing to dissipate existing prejudices," he said.

Meanwhile, peaceful campaigns by activists from Muslim and Christian communities, denouncing Jones while calling for calm, are mushrooming on social networking sites such as Facebook, attracting scores of supporters.

"I've been heartened by how the Muslim community is reacting to it through launching campaigns to raise awareness about Islam and moderation," Mohammad Azraq, a 29-year old Jordanian consultant, told Babylon & Beyond. 

-- Alexandra Sandels in Beirut

Photo: Pastor Terry Jones of the Dove World Outreach Center speaks to the media on Thursday, accompanied by Imam Muhammad Musri of the Islamic Society of Central Florida. Credit: Associated Press

Comments

[MLS]

RIGHT WING, IGNORANT, INTOLERANT, SELF CENTERED, UNEDUCATED, FLORIDIAN RED NECK. That is what Jones is. If Jones were a muslim of the same personality he would be a member of Al Queda. Religious fanatics are the same in every religion.

[Dean Blake]

The Koran is 1,400 years young? I have neckties older than that!

[Joe]

This Florida Pastor will be at home in Israel, after all, all religious freaks end up in there anyway!

[nrb]

 There is NO WAY we of the western, judeo-christian culture will EVER be safe from islam. We can kiss their feet and they will decapitate us as instructed by the koran.
WE CANNOT LIVE IN FEAR.
I WILL NOT LIVE IN FEAR.  Muslims today are trying to keep our culture in FEAR.

[JohnBoyWalton]

Does anyone wonder, like me, why every response out of the Muslim community is absolute, hard lined and most assuredly involves death or the threat of massive violence? How on earth is anyone capable of taking them for a Godly people if their only truth is Islam, Muslim or death? Every other topic is just window dressing on this issue. Where are the Muslim leaders when it comes to denouncing their extremists? Hypocrisy reigns with these people! The NYC mosque is just another victory point marker for the Muslim's - don't be fooled by any other rhetoric. Notice how the rants from every Islamic uprising targets "Death to America". It just doesn't seem to matter what the incident is, if it was only a thought, not even an action, you can bet if there is a wiff of anti-Muslim in the air, the only response they know of is "Death to America". Now if that doesn't just want to make you go out and hug a Muslim, what would?

[Dean Blake]

I don't see that anyone said anything when muslims burnt bibles and torah scrolls at $35,000+ @ and other religious texts at the Tomb of Joseph and murdered a man in cold blood and burnt the place down and painted it up as their own. Arabs are sure sensitive when it comes to their texts and holy sites, but not to those of others even when they give lip service to venerating the Bible. The Rev. Jones started out right - he got their attention, but there is no follow thru to stimulate dialogue and discussion and much needed change in the Muslim community; too bad. He got their attention and then understandibly under natinoal pressure dropped the ball. He should have demanded something in exchange. He gave up something in exchange for nothing; typical result in dealing with Arabs.

[RWh]

For Christ's sake, this guy has already had his fiftenn minutes of fame and now wants to keep it going.
If one of our guys in uniform gets killed as a result of his and his churchs' action, then they are guilty of conspiracy to murder. I'm surprised that Fred Phelps' Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas and the nuts who follow him haven't jumped in this bandwagon.

[Aftab Balouch]

you plot your plan , we'll plot our, lets see what happens,

VICTORY , KINGDOM, RULE
BELONGS TO US

[Joe Wilhem]

If he wants to burn his books let him.
I wouldn't mind it one bit, if he were to burn the bible!

[sam]

you see the terrorists have beaten you, again all you, have shown is how tight a grip they have on you, and how scared they have got you .
its about time these terrorists got some of what they have been handing out but of course they have the lame brains to defend them and soon they will say thank you,with more bombs.WELL DONE.

[TL Winslow]

Who cares if somebody BBQs some old Korans he found in a garbage dump? Answer: Muslims, purveyors of the most intolerant supremacist ideology in world history, that claims to own the world and demands that it submit to its Sharia that makes even a mere insult to Muhammad or his writings a capital crime. Too bad, America will never submit to Sharia, so wait for CAIR to give you your free Koran then get out your BBQ and smoke it after calling the local TV stations, I'm sure they will have it on the national news :) Hope the smoke is sweet :)

The best place to get daily world news and op-ed article links on Islam including the Fla. Koran burners: http://tinyurl.com/islamwatch

[Heide Krueger]

Its the Media's fault to give this idiot so much attention

[Rachael]

I'm not saying what the pastor was/is going to do was/is right, but what frightens me the most about this whole incident was to see the reaction from the Muslim population around the world towards the West. Now, that was just downright scary!

[Mark]

It is very sad that Terry Jones has been harassed so much for planning to burn Korans on September 11. It should not matter to us if extremists are angry over because one man burned some Korans. Is it inconsiderate of our troops overseas and Christians worldwide? Yes it is. But it is his right to burn Korans and that is what the men and women of our army are over there for (promoting freedom). Unfortunately because of this mans actions some of our soldiers may die, but when they joined the military, they chose to defend our freedom as a nation with their lives if necessary. This means they are defending everyone’s rights to freedom in this country no matter how silly or inconsiderate they are. Of course there are certain things people cannot do such as killing others or attacking them to promote their views. Some may argue that Jones maybe doing this by burning the Koran and causing the extremists to go after the Christians in other nations and after our military. But our soldiers are defending our freedom in our nation, not the freedom of Christians in other nations. They are fighting and dying for all of us that we may have the right to be an infidel and burn a Koran if we so choose.
As for the Christians in the Muslim nations they should expect persecution anyway, this will just make it more extreme. But the Bible says that Christians will be killed, thrown in prisons, and dragged before leaders and beaten, so if they have a problem with that then they should look at being in a different religion or not religious at all.
The press really blew this out of proportion and made it an international incident. This should have been an isolated incident. But at the same time it exposes the fear that our nations leaders and that our nation as a whole lives in. And it also exposes our inability to sacrifice for our freedom. Instead of standing behind what this man did, no matter how inconsiderate or stupid it may have been, yet done because he is free to do so, our leaders condemned what he was doing to appease the extremists around the world. So they are afraid of what they will do. This does not stop their extremism it only encourages it. We have become a society that is no longer willing to sacrifice, only willing to appease and cover stuff over and ignore it instead of facing it. Had the U.S. government backed him they could have exposed the extremists they are fighting. The Turkish Prime Minister called for all Muslims to fight it intellectually with these words.

"When we have a holy book that describes the truth in the most beautiful way and that book has been preserved for 1,400 years, why is it that we have difficulty in explaining the message of the Koran to the world and in expressing ourselves?"
"Let us not apportion blame to those who wage such dark and dirty propaganda. We are to blame, because this means that we cannot explain ourselves and that we are not trying. We must sit down and think about what we have done or are doing to dissipate existing prejudices,"

That is very wise and those that follow those words spoken are not extremists, but open to dialogue instead of just pointlessly killing. But those that do riot and kill are the extremists and how the U.S. Government decides to dispose of them is their decision, being that they are elected to have that power to make that decision.
This also means that as Americans we have to be ready to receive suicide bombers on our soil, if our military cannot stamp them out in other countries. This is not a fun thought, not to me or anyone else, but if it means guarding our freedom, we will have to sacrifice for it. And it means that we have to sacrifice for the freedom of someone to inconsiderately burn Korans then so be it. But that is how our freedom remains free, by sacrifice, not by ignoring things such as this incident or trying to make amends with people who kill other people for believing something else. If we continue down this path we open ourselves up to attack and our future generations may even end up being ruled by extremists such as these.

[Rev. Hicks]

September 11, 2001. A day most people will never forget. I can remember where I was: in my backyard cutting grass. While I was cutting my grass, people in Washington, D.C. and New York ran for their lives. Firemen ran to flames that would consume their flesh, businessmen jumped from windows, policemen arrived to protect and ventured to that unknown land whose no born traveler has returned. We heard the stories of strangers who helped each other to safety acting out of natural human instinct…and I was cutting my grass. While I was cutting grass, a person of the Islamic faith somewhere was working in his yard, shopping for groceries, cleaning their homes, earning a day’s pay, or praying to Allah.

An examination of ANY major religion finds that ALL are built upon the same truths: love your fellow man, be kind to your neighbor, deal honestly, and deal truthfully. So when I hear about this extremist preacher planning to burn the Qur’an in the street, I say to my Islamic brothers: “This terrorist does not represent my faith or my God”. As Christians we know where such hate originates. It is the same hatred that fueled Jim Crowe, slavery, and lynching, it is the same originator of murder, rape, and gang violence. Are none of the proponents of these terrorist activities professed Christians?

If the faith of my Islamic brothers is as strong as my Christian faith, I know burning a Qur’an is not going to decimate the power of Allah. In fact, this extremist act may actually increase interest in Islamic thought. I know God is two things: Love and Truth. Where there is truth, there is God. Where there is love, there is God. God is the sum total of us all.

We as American Christians should strip this preacher of anything associated with the name of our Christ. He is a mockery to the example of Christ. Maybe Christians should go to the proposed burning and throw in the Bible he is preaching from, because whatever he is reading does not represent us.

[Ben]

"Burning [the Koran] out of hatred and with the aim of the defaming Islam is one of the biggest insults toward the religion, God and God's words. Whoever does it should be punished with the same punishment as a Muslim who disbelieves and converts to another religion." wait so your saying I must be punished if I convert to another religion? I've known people convert from judiasm to catholicism and vice versa. I've known christains that have converted to both budhism and Islam. But I have yet to see anyone "punished" for converting from these religions. Maybe this has something to do with why the free world disagrees with socialist religous laws. I also think it's funny that people want the pastor to be tried with treason if he goes through with this. Your actions are your own, so if some racist wants to burn your holy book it's not his fault if you retaliate by killing us troops, it yours and your dumb ass religions fault. Burning a holy book is disrespectful and distatesful and I wouldnt have any part in it, but he has the freedom to do it legally and he has his own reasons for it. Just like people that think they have the reason to push religion down our throats with the barrel of a gun. All religions are dumb, why haven't we learned this in the last couple thousand years?

[Erica]

Looks like Fred Phelps and the Westboro Baptist Church has some serious competition in the bats**t crazy department. If any harm comes to our soliders overseas, then Terry Jones and his nutty cult should be tried for treason, if they go through on their stupid threat on burning the Qur'an.