A church in Florida has sparked a huge reaction by planning to burn 200 copies of the Koran on 9 September 2010. Pastor Terry Jones plans on burning the books at his church in Florida, the Dove World Outreach Centre, as a protest against radical Islam.
He claims that the ceremony has been organised to mark the ninth anniversary of the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Centre and that the U.S. Constitution gives him the right to publicly set fire to the books.
There has been huge international reaction over the plans and Pastor Terry Jones has received over 100 death threats.
The plans have been greeted with alarm in the Middle Eastern press. Lebanon's Daily Star said they were "likely to ignite a fire of rage that could consume swathes of the globe", while United Arab Emirates paper the Khaleej Times describe the planned burning as "rabid and insane".
On Monday, several hundred Afghans rallied outside a Kabul mosque, burning American flags and an effigy of Pastor Jones while chanting 'death to America'. Members of the crowd pelted a passing US military convoy with stones before being ordered to stop by protest organisers. Thousands of Indonesian Muslims have demonstrated outside the US embassy in Jakarta and in five other cities to protest against the church's plan.
The US and NATO commander in Afghanistan, General David Petraeus, says soldiers' lives will be at risk if the church carries out its threat and the Pastor has received fierce condemnation from the Obama administration. Eric Holder, the U.S. attorney general, called the plans idiotic and dangerous. A state department spokesman called the planned protest "un-American".
Update 10 September 2010:
Muslim protests in Afghanistan over the proposed Koran burnings have turned violent and a man has been shot dead by German troops after the protestors attacked a Nato base in Faizabad.
It is unclear whether Pastor Jones will proceed with his plans to burn the Korans on 11 September 2010.
Sources:
Daily Mail
Daily Telegraph
Guardian