Source/Credit:Khaleej Times Online / INTERNATIONAL
By AFP | Khaleej Times | September 9, 2010
ISLAMABAD — Pakistan’s president has condemned as “despicable” a US church’s plan to burn the Holy Quran on September 11, saying it will inflame Muslim sentiment across the world, a statement from his office said Thursday.
President Asif Ali Zardari said “anyone who even thought of such a despicable act must be suffering from a diseased mind and a sickly soul,” according to the statement.
“It will inflame sentiments among Muslims throughout the world and cause irreparable damage to interfaith harmony and also to world peace,” the statement quoted Zardari as saying.
“The President called for doing all that it takes to stop such a senseless and outrageous act,” the statement added.
Florida’s Dove World Outreach Center is planning to burn copies of the Holy Quran on Saturday’s anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States by the Al-Qaeda terror network.
The church’s pastor, Terry Jones, has brushed aside global outrage and vowed to go ahead with the ceremony, at which hundreds of copies of Islam’s holy book will be burned, despite fears it will ignite a global wave of Islamic rage.
The plans have already sparked protests in two Pakistani cities. In Islamabad, 60 people from a Sunni Muslim organisation chanted anti-US slogans in the street and about 100 people led by a group of lawyers held a rally in the central city of Multan.
In Multan, the demonstrators burned the American flag to express their anger and held placards that read: “Down with America” and “Blasphemy Unacceptable”.
Pakistan’s foreign ministry has also spoken out against the plan.
“Pakistan strongly condemns and denounces the planned shameful burning of 200 copies of the holy Holy Quran by a small Florida church on September 11,” foreign office spokesman Abdul Basit told a press briefing in Islamabad.
“The government and the people of Pakistan including Christians, are outraged at this planned act by a self-proclaimed pastor,” he said.
Basit urged believers of all faiths to “strongly condemn this fanatic approach and oppose those, who in the name of freedom and liberty, are resorting to bigotry and undermining the work that has been done towards promoting interfaith harmony since 9/11”.
Read original post here: Planned Quran burning ‘despicable’: Pakistan Prez
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