First a mosque at 9/11 epicenter, now this ...

[Twoller]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-11209738

7 September 2010 Last updated at 10:41 ET

Petraeus: Koran burning plan will endanger US troops

Protesters burned an effigy of Pastor Terry Jones The top US commander in Afghanistan has warned that troops' lives will be in danger if an American church sticks to its plan to burn copies of the Koran.

Gen David Petraeus said the action could cause problems "not just in Kabul, but everywhere in the world".

Pastor Terry Jones, of the Dove World Outreach Center, plans to put copies of the holy book in a bonfire to mark this week's anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.

There have already been protests in Afghanistan and Indonesia.

The US embassy in Kabul issued a statement condemning the plans by the non-denominational church in Gainesville, Florida.

"It could endanger troops and it could endanger the overall effort," Gen Petraeus said in a statement to US media. "It is precisely the kind of action the Taliban uses and could cause significant problems.

"Not just here, but everywhere in the world, we are engaged with the Islamic community," added Gen Petraeus, who heads a 150,000-strong Nato force against a Taliban-led insurgency.

Meanwhile, Nato chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen on Tuesday blasted the church's plans, telling reporters that burning Korans violated the Nato alliance's "values".

"There is a risk that it may also have a negative impact on security for our troops," news agency AFP quoted him as saying.

Mr Jones said the church was "very concerned" after hearing Gen Petraeus' warning and was taking his words seriously. He said the church was praying on the matter but he said the group had "firmly made up our minds".

"How long do we back down?" he said on CNN.

In Kabul on Monday, about 500 protesters chanted "long live Islam" and "death to America" as they set fire to an effigy of Mr Jones.

The controversy comes at a time of already heated debate in the US over a proposal to build a mosque and Islamic cultural centre two streets from Ground Zero, site of the 9/11 attacks, in New York.

The planned protest by Mr Jones's previously little-known 50-member Florida church, whose website labels Islam "violent and oppressive", has prompted protests elsewhere, too.

Thousands of mostly Muslim demonstrators rallied around Indonesia last weekend.

Claims that US soldiers have desecrated the Koran in both Afghanistan and Iraq have caused bloodshed in the past.

There were deadly protests in Afghanistan in 2008, when it emerged that a US soldier deployed to Iraq riddled a copy of the holy book with bullets.

And further lives were lost in Afghan riots in 2005 when Newsweek magazine printed a story alleging that US interrogators at Guantanamo Bay had flushed a copy of the Koran down a toilet.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010...ndanger-troops

Church's plans to burn Qur'an will endanger troops, US commander warns

General David Petraeus says move by US evangelical group to burn Islam's holy book would threaten Americans worldwide

image: General David Petraeus: said he was very concerned by the 'potential repercussions'. Photograph: Saad Shalash/Reuters

The leading US and Nato commander in Afghanistan today said threats by a US church to burn copies of the Qur'an could endanger troops in Afghanistan and Americans worldwide.

General David Petraeus's warning followed a protest by hundreds of Afghans yesterday over plans by the Florida-based Dove World Outreach Centre - an evangelical Christian church espousing anti-Islamic philosophy - to burn copies of the Qur'an on church grounds to mark the anniversary of the September 11 attacks.

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 US military convoy with stones, but were ordered to stop by protest organisers.

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

"Images of the burning of a Qur'an would undoubtedly be used by extremists in Afghanistan, and around the world, to inflame public opinion and incite violence," Petraeus said.

"I am very concerned by the potential repercussions. Even the rumour that it might take place has sparked demonstrations such as the one that took place in Kabul. 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."

Muslims consider the Qur'an 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 Qur'an is deeply offensive.

In 2005, 15 people died and scores were wounded in riots in Afghanistan sparked by a story in Newsweek magazine which alleged that interrogators at Guantánamo Bay placed copies of the Qur'an in bathrooms and flushed one down a toilet. Newsweek later retracted the story

The US embassy in Kabul 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 Centre, 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.

How could a US general be so stupid as to imagine that something like good behavior on the part of the US will be rewarded by Muslim terrorists? In light of the political stunts that got him where is now in NATO, he really is pushing his luck.

[ilbegone]

It's not about good or bad behavior by the US that is in question.

It's about tit for tat stuff that is the greater part of the capitalization of ignorance by extremists, whether or not the extremists are foreign or domestic, mainstream or moonbeam.

Hitler needed Jews, brown extremists need white bigotry. Some religious factions need "infidels" and "emissaries of Satan" - regardless of their religious persuasion or national origin.

The best thing concerning the Mosque at ground zero is that those who want to build it show the same cultural sensitivity they demand by building it elsewhere and not sticking a finger in my eye by doing so at ground zero. The best thing the future Koran burners can do is understand that 9-11 was the work of extremists, forget about the bonfire and embark on another sort of campaign to discourage what I view as a provocation concerning 9-11.

Burning Korans isn't going to do anything to stop the mosque but it is perfect fodder for international exploitation of religious emotion.

[Don]

I'm sick and tired of this kind of crap.

If he wanted to burn an American flag instead of a Koran, every liberal civil rights group in the country would be braying about his "free speech" rights.


We can't even say Merry Christmas in public any more in this country and General Patraeus has no problem with that. Screw him! Screw them all. I hope they go ahead and burn the damned Koran.

[ilbegone]

Merry Christmas hallelujah to you, Don, and everyone here, the American public at large, Glenn Beck and Obama both, the Koran burners, the Ground Zero mosque builders, the troops in Iraq and Afghanistan and the Taliban too.

MERRY CHRISTMAS

I believe at this time Patraius has a lot more on his mind other than whether or not I just said all that.

And no one is going to haul me off, sue me, or cap me from behind for doing so.




There's a cure for ignorance, but there's not one for stupidity. And whether burning Korans as a matter of free speech is ignorant or stupid or merely a type of religious masturbation masquerading as patriotism isn't so important as to whether or not it is pragmatic to the desired result. A lot more gas than Korans is going to be tossed on that fire.

[Patriotic Army Mom]

Our troops have been in harms way ever since mr. O came into office. He's bowed before these terrorists, put handcuffs on our soldiers, he's the one responsible. Don, I'm sick of it also!
Merry Christmas to you all, it's time to go read my bible and make sure that my American flag is flying freely in my yard!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Rim05]

Our troops have been in harms way ever since mr. O came into office. He's bowed before these terrorists, put handcuffs on our soldiers, he's the one responsible.

MOM, lets be real. Our troups have been in harms way ever since we invaded Iraq and how many billions of dollars and lives has it cost us? That is not including Iraqi and others lives. Mr O, President Obama, was not in office when we invaded. Wish he had brought the troops home but everyone would have said we were quiters. Personally wish we had never gone there.