- 'Strong likelihood' of violent attacks if if burning goes ahead
- US pastor hints at cancelling event if contacted by Obama
Matthew Weaver, Tim Hill and agencies
Friday September 10 2010
guardian.co.uk
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/sep/09/us-quran-burning-florida-interpol
Interpol, the international police agency, has warned of an increased
risk of terror attacks if the planned burning of the Qur'an by
extremist US pastor Terry Jones takes place on Saturday.
"If the burning goes ahead as planned there is a strong likelihood
that violent attacks on innocent people would follow," Interpol,
acting partly on a request from Pakistan, said in a statement.
The warning came as Jones, a pentecostal preacher from Gainseville,
Florida, hinted he might be prepared to call off the burning ? planned
to mark the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks ? if he was contacted
directly by Barack Obama, the state department or the Pentagon.
"That would cause us to definitely think it over," Jones told USA
Today. "That's what we're doing now. I don't think a call from them is
something we would ignore." But he said that as things stood he was
"not convinced that backing down is the right thing".
The White House confirmed it was discussing whether to contact Jones ?
whose church, The Dove World Outreach Centre, has a congregation of
about 50 ? to ask him to call off his plans. Pentagon spokesman
Geoffrey Morrell said: "That possibility is currently under discussion
within the administration. I don't believe they've come to any
resolution yet."
Barack Obama earlier joined mounting worldwide condemnation of the
plan, saying the event would be a "recruitment bonanza for al-Qaida".
The US president told ABC News: "If he's listening, I hope he
understands that what he's proposing to do is completely contrary to
our values as Americans," Obama said.
Obama said the event was a stunt that would boost support for
terrorism. "This could increase the recruitment of individuals who
would be willing to blow themselves up in American cities or European
cities," Obama said.
The president repeated a warning by General David Petraeus, the
commander of US and Nato forces in Afghanistan, that the burning would
endanger US troops.
"And as a very practical matter I just want him [Jones] to understand
that this stunt could greatly endanger our young men and women who are
in uniform," Obama said.
David Cameron's spokesman said earlier that the prime minister
strongly opposed any attempt to offend members of a religious group.
Religious leaders of all faiths have warned against the event, with
statements of protest coming from both the Vatican and the Archbishop
of Canterbury.
This week protests took place in the Afghanistan capital of Kabul
where effigies of Jones were burned alongside the American flag.
Anjem Choudary, the former leader of the banned Islamist organisation
Islam4UK, told Reuters he was calling on radical Muslim groups around
the world to burn American flags outside US embassies in retaliation.
Today about 200 lawyers and civilians marched and burned a US flag in
the central Pakistani city of Multan, demanding that Washington
prevent the book burning.
The foreign ministries of Pakistan and Bahrain issued some of the
first official denunciations in the Muslim world, with the latter
calling it a "shameful act which is incompatible with the principles
of tolerance and co-existence".
The president of Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation,
has written to Obama asking him to stop the bonfire. Susilo Bambang
Yudhoyono told Obama that images of the Qur'an in flames could
"threaten world peace", according to his special adviser Heru Lelono.
India's home office has asked its country's media to exercise
restraint in reporting on the planned burning.
The rightwing US presidential hopeful Sarah Palin urged Jones and his
supporters to reconsider. Writing on her Facebook page she said:
"People have a constitutional right to burn a Qur'an if they want to
but doing so is insensitive and an unnecessary provocation ? much like
building a mosque at Ground Zero."
In a statement on his faith foundation website, Britain's former prime
minister Tony Blair, said: "Rather than burn the Qur'an I would
encourage people to read it".
guardian.co.uk Copyright (c) Guardian News and Media Limited. 2010
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