Copies of the Koran will be burned by a US church on September 11, despite warnings that the act will put the lives of soldiers at risk.
Nutcase priest, Terry Jones, who has organised the Koran burning event to commemorate the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Centre, said: “We must send a clear message to the radical element of Islam.”
However US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has called the idea a “disrespectful, disgraceful act” and attorney general Eric Holder has branded the event idiotic and dangerous.
Jones, of the Gainesville, Florida-based Dove World Outreach Center, which reportedly has about 50 members, said he understands U.S. government concerns that the burning of Korans could increase dangers for soldiers in foreign countries but says he plans to go ahead anyway.
Jones has received more than 100 death threats and had taken to carrying a pistol, but he remains determined to go ahead with his ‘Burn a Koran day’.
“Instead of us being blamed for what other people will do or might do, why don’t we send a warning to them?” he ranted.
Clinton said: “I am heartened by the clear, unequivocal condemnation of this disrespectful, disgraceful act that has come from American religious leaders of all faiths.”
General David Petraeus, the top US and Nato commander in Afghanistan, has said that the image of the burning could have a similar impact to photographs of prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib jail, making targets of Americans around the world.
He said it could “endanger troops and it could endanger the overall effort” in Afghanistan.
Pastor Jones is the author of a book entitled Islam Is Of The Devil and seems unlikely to be concerned by the fact that his Koran burning event comes at a time when Islamophobia is already on the rise over plans to build an Islamic cultural centre close to Ground Zero in New York.
Ingrid Mattson, head of the Islamic Society of North America, said: “Having spoken to many families across the country over the last few weeks, I have heard many Muslim Americans say they have never felt this anxious or this insecure in America since directly after September 11.”