News
Saturday, September 11, 2010
Quran-burning outrage builds across the globe
* One killed, 11 injured as thousands attack NATO-run base in Afghanistan
* Hundreds of protesters rally in Pakistan, set fire to American flags
* US pastor puts burning event on holdGAINESVILLE: A Florida pastor suspended plans to burn hundreds of copies of the holy Quran, but the move failed to stem a global tide of Muslim outrage on Friday, as he warned the torching ceremony could yet take place.
Radical evangelist Terry Jones first announced on Thursday he had scrapped Saturday’s mass immolation after US Defence Secretary Robert Gates called him directly to urge him not to go ahead.
Jones said he had spoken to Imam Muhammad Musri, president of the Islamic Society of Central Florida, and had been assured that a planned mosque near the site of the 9/11 attacks would be moved.
When Musri and the sponsor of the New York mosque later denied such an agreement had been made, Jones said Musri had “clearly, clearly lied to us”.
“Given what we are now hearing, we are forced to rethink our decision,” Jones told CNN. “So as of right now, we are not cancelling the event, but we are suspending it,” he said.
Condemnation: Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Friday said that Jones “should not even think” of burning the holy Quran.
“By burning the Quran they cannot harm it. The Quran is in the hearts and minds of one and a half billion people. (But) insulting the Quran is an insult to nations,” Karzai said.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad branded the episode a “Zionist plot” that would end up in the speedy “annihilation” of Israel, while Ismail Haniya, a top leader of the Palestinian Hamas movement, called Jones an “insane lunatic”.
Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono lashed out anew against Jones a day after calling on US President Barack Obama to intervene.
Afghan protest: Thousands of people took to the streets across Afghanistan on Friday, some threatening to attack US bases.
One protester was shot dead and several were wounded outside a German-run NATO base in northeast Afghanistan and NATO said it was investigating. Demonstrations later spread to the capital, Kabul, and at least four other provinces.
A crowd, estimated at 10,000 by a government official, poured out of mosques into the streets of Faizabad, the capital of Badakhshan in Afghanistan’s northeast, after Eid prayers. One protester was shot dead when the people tried to enter the NATO base in Faizabad.
In Multan, hundreds of protesters took to the streets and burned US flags. agencies
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk