A radical American pastor has once again burned copies of Muslims’ holy book, the Qur’an, as well as a portrait of Prophet Mohamed in a Florida church.
US pastor Terry Jones along with another pastor perpetrated the sacrilegious acts in front of their church in Gainesville, Florida on Saturday, AFP reported.
Some 20 people attended the burning process.
In a statement issued late on Sunday night, the Iranian Foreign Ministry termed the act as part of failed plans by the West for war of civilizations, adding that it aimed to incite hatred and phobia against Islam.
The statement also said that the US government’s failure to act against similar acts of desecration in the Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo prisons in Iraq and Cuba and the recent such sacrileges in Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan had led to the blasphemous acts of Saturday.
On February 20, US troopers burned copies of the Holy Qur’an and other Islamic texts at the US-run airbase in the northern Afghanistan province of Parwan.
On March 20, 2011, American evangelical preacher Wayne Sapp, who was serving as Jones’ assistant at the time, torched a copy of Qur’an, claiming that the holy book had been found “guilty” of crimes and was therefore “executed.”
Jones was also present during the event.
The desecration sparked widespread protests in many Muslim countries, including Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Indonesia, and India after a video of the Qur’an burning was broadcast online. The protests turned violent in Afghanistan, leaving at least 12 people dead.
——Agencies