Washington, September 08: Afghan protesters shout slogans during a protest against an American church’s plans to burn the… Enlarge Photo Afghan protesters shout slogans during a protest against an American church’s plans to burn the…
U.S. religious leaders joined on Tuesday to condemn an “anti-Muslim frenzy” in the United States, and the head of U.S. forces in Afghanistan warned that a Florida church’s plan for a Koran-burning could endanger American troops abroad.
Christian, Muslim and Jewish religious leaders denounced the “misinformation and outright bigotry” against U.S. Muslims resulting from plans to build a Muslim community center and mosque not far from the site of the Sept. 11, 2001, hijacked plane attacks in New York by the Islamist militant group al Qaeda that killed 2,752 people.
Tensions have risen with the approach of both the Sept. 11 anniversary and the Muslim eid al-Fitr festival that marks the close of the fasting month of Ramadan, which is expected to end around Friday.
Passions have been further inflamed by Terry Jones, the pastor of a 30-person church in Gainesville, Florida, who has announced plans for a Koran-burning on Saturday to coincide with the Sept. 11 anniversary. Jones says he wants to “expose Islam” as a “violent and oppressive religion.”
Religious leaders, including Washington Roman Catholic Archbishop emeritus Cardinal Theodore McCarrick and Dr. Michael Kinnamon of the National Council of Churches, released a statement saying they were “alarmed by the anti-Muslim frenzy” and “appalled by such disrespect for a sacred text.”
“To attack any religion in the United States is to do violence to the religious freedom of all Americans,” said the religious leaders, including Rabbi David Saperstein, head of the Union for Reform Judaism, and Rabbi Julie Schonfeld of the Association of Conservative Rabbis.
“The threatened burning of copies of the Holy Qu’ran this Saturday is a particularly egregious offense that demands the strongest possible condemnation by all who value civility in public life and seek to honor the sacred memory of those who lost their lives on Sept. 11,” they said.
The planned Koran-burning by the Dove World Outreach Center has already prompted protests in Kabul. Several hundred Afghans — mostly students from religious schools — gathered outside the Milad ul-Nabi mosque and chanted “Death to America” in anger over the plans.
General David Petraeus, the head of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, said in a statement the Koran burning could “endanger troops and it could endanger the overall effort” to stabilize the Afghan situation.
“It is precisely the kind of action the Taliban uses and could cause significant problems, not just here, but everywhere in the world we are engaged with the Islamic community,” Petraeus said.
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg told a news conference he agreed with Petraeus’ concerns. “The First Amendment (guaranteeing freedom of speech) protects everybody,” he said, although adding, “I don’t think that he (the pastor) would like it if (someone) burned a book of his religion).”
The White House and State Department weighed in with equally stern statements making clear President Barack Obama’s administration deplored the planned event.
“We think that these are provocative acts, they are disrespectful, they are intolerant, they are divisive,” State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said in Washington.
“We would like to see more Americans stand up and say this is inconsistent with our American values. In fact, these actions themselves are un-American,” he added.
Dr. Ingrid Mattson, the Islamic Society of North America president who helped organize Tuesday’s statement by religious leaders, said ordinary U.S. Muslims were feeling increasingly worried and harassed as they went about their daily lives.
“I have heard many Muslim-Americans say that they have never felt this anxious or this insecure in America since directly after September 11,” she said.
She urged Muslims abroad to “take a step back” and not use the “loud voices of some Christian extremists” in the United States as a justification for action against American Jews and Christians.
“They do not represent America, they do not represent Christianity or Judaism,” Mattson said. “These people who are here with us today represent the true values and views of the vast majority of American Jews and Christians and just American citizens.”
The religious leaders did not take a stand regarding the planned cultural center and mosque near the Ground Zero site in downtown Manhattan.
Rallies for and against the center and mosque are set for Saturday in New York after a memorial ceremony for those killed. Families of the victims were debating whether to call a truce on the anniversary, with some saying the day should be reserved for “appropriate remembrance and reflection.”
Critics say the planned location two blocks from Ground Zero is insensitive, while supporters say politicians have wrongly commandeered the emotionally charged debate before U.S. congressional elections on Nov. 2.
——-Agencies