Pastor Terry Jones of Dove World Outreach Centre in Gainesville, Florida, wants to mark the ninth anniversary of the 9/11 World Trade Center attack and insists that his church will go ahead despite opposition from religious leaders including Christians and Muslims.
President of Catholic Bishops Conference of Malaysia, Archbishop Murphy Pakiam criticised the pastor for suggesting the act.
“It is totally unbecoming of a Christian. A disciple of Jesus Christ has to learn to respect others and their Holy Books,” Murphy was quoted by the goodtimes.my website.
The National Evangelical Christian Fellowship Chairman Rev. Dr. Eu Hong Seng also called for the respect of the scriptures of all faiths. He also pointed out that the act of scripture burning is immature and irrational.
“The Christian community does not condone such theatrics and we pray that the religious communities will respond sensibly to this isolated incident,” added Eu.
The youth wing of the Council of Churches Malaysia (CCM Youth) handed a memorandum to the US Embassy in Jalan Tun Razak today to show that they opposed the event.
They urged the US government to prevent the proposed burning from taking place.
“It is tantamount to a form of hate crime that must be dealt with utmost severity,” the group said.
The youth group also told the US government to uphold rights of those professing other faiths and to protect all religious communities from extremist and racist acts.
CCM Youth moderator and executive council member, Chrisanne Chin, is confident that the US government is taking this matter seriously and taking it to the highest level.
“They are encouraging grassroots initiatives to provide counter views to these isolated oddities, which are not representative of the American people,” she said.
As a follow up, the CCM Youth plans to hold an interfaith Hari Raya Dinner to express its stand on the issue.
News of the burning of copies of the Muslim holy text drew criticism and concerns about security from top US officials including Secretary of State Hilary Clinton, Attorney General Eric Holder, White House spokesperson Robert Gibbs.
US Troops Commander in Afghanistan, Gen. David Petraeus fears that the move could endanger the troops’ lives.
About 13,000 fans of a facebook fan page titled “Islam is of the Devil” have voiced their support of Jones’s call to burn the Koran.
Most of the comments on the page were hate speech against the Muslim community.
On the page , one John Thomson said “No Islamic terrorism, Muslims have murdered over 16 000 innocent civilians since 9/11 intentionally”.