GAINESVILLE, Fla. (Reuters) - A militant fundamentalist Christian
preacher in Florida whose burning of a Koran triggered deadly riots
in Afghanistan was unrepentant on Saturday and defiantly vowed to
lead an anti-Islam protest outside the biggest mosque in the United
States.
The planned demonstration could further inflame tensions over the
Koran burning, which led to two days of protests in Afghanistan
that included the killings of U.N. staff and stoked anti-Western
sentiment in parts of the Muslim world.
"Our aim is to make an awareness of the radical element of Islam,"
Pastor Terry Jones told Reuters in an interview at the church he
leads in the college town of Gainesville, Florida. A picture of the
burning Koran was on his computer screen.
"Obviously it is terrible any time people are murdered or killed. I
think that on the other hand, it shows the radical element of
Islam."
Jones, a former hotel manager turned pastor who claims the Koran
incites violence, said he will go ahead with a protest on April 22
in front of the largest mosque in the United States, located in
Dearborn, Michigan.
President Barack Obama denounced the act of burning a Koran but did
not mention Jones by name.
"The desecration of any holy text, including the Koran, is an act
of extreme intolerance and bigotry," Obama said in a statement
released by the White House on Saturday. "However, to attack and
kill innocent people in response is outrageous, and an affront to
human decency and dignity."
Jones provoked an international outcry last year over his plan to
burn copies of the Koran on the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks
on the United States.
He backed down after pleas from the U.S. government and other world
officials, but then presided over a March 20 mock trial of the
Koran that included a torching of the book. It barely drew media
attention but Internet footage reverberated across the Muslim
world.
FREE SPEECH
A range of Christian and U.S. Muslim leaders have condemned Jones
and his small Dove World Outreach Center church, which reportedly
has a congregation of around 30 members.
"One of the great tragedies of all this is that a tiny fringe
church can cause such an uproar," said Geoff Tunnicliffe, director
of the World Evangelical Alliance International, which groups
together evangelical churches in more than 100 countries.
"My question to him is, 'Why would you want to provoke people to
this kind of response, knowing this was probably going to be the
outcome?'"
Government officials in Pakistan and Afghanistan have called for
U.S. authorities to arrest Jones. However, his public criticism of
Islam and desecration of the Koran are allowed under U.S. laws
protecting free speech.
Jones defended the Koran burning and said the reaction in
Afghanistan "shows exactly what we're talking about."
"If my neighbor offends me, it does not give me the right to break
into his house and kill him," he told Reuters.
He said he has received several hundred death threats since he
first talked of burning the Koran last September, leading him to
carry a handgun and take shooting classes.
Safety concerns at the church have driven away most of the
churchgoers, he said. "We have seen a drop-off."
He did not say whether he intended to burn another Koran during the
upcoming protest, which he said should not be viewed as an attack
against all Muslims.
"To the peaceful Muslim that lives down the street, we are sorry if
our actions have offended them, which I am sure it has. But at the
same we are not trying to attack them," he said. "We are trying to
make it very clear that we are against this radical element," he
added.
(Writing by Kevin Gray; Editing by Paul Simao and Kieran
Murray)
Copyright © 2011 Reuters