Obama Urges Fla. Pastor to Cancel Quran Burning
Updated: 2 hours 58 minutes ago AOL News (Sept. 9) -- President Barack Obama called upon a Florida pastor not to burn the Quran, denouncing the act as "completely contrary to our values" and warning that it could become a "recruitment bonanza" for al-Qaida.
"If he's listening, I just hope he understands that what he's proposing to do is completely contrary to our values," the president said in
an interview with ABC's "Good Morning America" today. "This country has been built on the notions of religious freedom and religious tolerance."
Obama said a plan by the controversial pastor, Terry Jones, to burn the Quran on the ninth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks was a "stunt" that would endanger U.S. troops abroad.
Jones, the 58-year-old leader of the Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville, Fla., regards Islam as a "false religion" and has said he wants to burn the Quran to "send a clear message to the radical element of Islam" that the United States "will no longer be controlled and dominated by their fears and threats."
Obama, who has described himself as a "
devout Christian," appealed to the pastor's sense of religion today. "He says he's someone who is motivated by his faith," Obama told ABC. "I hope he listens to ... those better angels."
The president is only the latest in a growing number of public figures, from Angelina Jolie to the Indonesian president, to have spoken out against the planned Quran burning in recent days and pleaded with the bombastic pastor to stand down.
On her Facebook page Wednesday evening, Sarah Palin
slammed Jones' plan as an "insensitive and an unnecessary provocation."
"If your ultimate point is to prove that the Christian teachings of mercy, justice, freedom and equality provide the foundation on which our country stands, then your tactic to prove this point is totally counterproductive," she wrote. "Book burning is antithetical to American ideals."
The planned Quran burning, a local event that has metastasized into seemingly global significance, is expected to draw far more protesters than participants to Gainesville. Scores of religious leaders have condemned Jones' plans, but concerns sharpened this week after
Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, warned that burning the Muslim holy book could "endanger troops" and "endanger the overall effort."
During a U.N. goodwill tour of Pakistan, actress Jolie said, " I have hardly the words that somebody would do that to somebody's religious book."The Vatican agrees, and on Tuesday, it issued a simple statement on the matter on the front page of its official newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano. "No one burns the Quran," the headline explained plainly. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and
Attorney General Eric Holder have also spoken out publicly against the event.
In Indonesia, where thousands protested against the Quran burning earlier this week with chants of "Long live Islam" and "Death to America," Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono sent a formal request to Obama asking him to stop the "hideous act." But Jones is protected under the First Amendment, and experts agree it would be
very difficult to stop the pastor through legal means.
Jones, for his part, shows no signs of backing down. "We have no intention of canceling," he told reporters Wednesday.
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WASHINGTON — The State Department has ordered U.S. embassies around the world to assess their security ahead of a Florida church group's planned weekend burning of the Muslim holy book amid fears it could spark anti-American violence.
Officials said Wednesday that U.S. diplomatic posts have been instructed to convene "emergency action committees" to determine the potential for protests over the congregation's plans to burn the Quran to commemorate the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The posts are to warn American citizens in countries where protests may occur.
The move underscores the Obama administration's deep concern that Saturday's planned Quran burning will inflame anti-American sentiment, particularly in the Arab and Muslim world, and put U.S. troops, diplomats and travelers at risk.
The Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville has rebuffed appeals from Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and senior military commanders to cancel its plans.
It was not immediately clear how many embassies had completed the security review, but the U.S. Embassy in Algiers issued an alert to Americans in Algeria on Wednesday saying that "media reports of the upcoming threatened Quran burning by a small Gainesville, Florida, group could affect the security of U.S. citizens overseas."
"If the event proceeds, it could trigger reaction and protests in Muslim countries around the world, possibly including Algeria," the alert said.
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(I don't even know what to say) May God bless us all.-Missygirl*
# posted by Missygirl : 11:28 AM
MATTHEW LEE | 09/ 8/10 07:19 PM |