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Quran burning threat fuels protests
One person reported killed near Afghan Nato base amid global demonstrations against US pastors' threat to burn Qurans.
Last Modified: 10 Sep 2010 17:31 GMT
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Anti-US slogans were chanted as hundreds of protesters held rallies in Karachi, southern Pakistan [AFP] Thousands of Muslims around the world have taken to the streets to protest against threats by an obscure pastor in the United States to burn copies of the Quran on the ninth anniversary of the September 11 attacks on the US.Demonstrations have erupted in countries including Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Indonesia and the Palestinian territories, despite the church in question saying it would not go ahead with the plan.
In Afghanistan, at least one person was reported to have been killed in clashes with security forces as an angry crowd attacked a Nato base in the northern province of Badakshan.
Al Jazeera's Sue Turton, reporting from Kabul, said: "They started throwing rocks at the Nato compound [in Badakshan].
"The governor has told us that one person has been killed and several others injured.
"It's not just in the northeast. We've also heard reports from Farah in the West, that several people were injured there, and that in the east of the country in Nangahar, there were demonstrations there.
"I hear that 'Death to America' was chanted, an effigy of Barack Obama [the US president] was burned, and that people there were chanting 'long-live the Taliban, long live Osama bin Laden'."
But Turton said that the situation appeared to be under control.
"I don't want to give the picture here that the whole of Afghanistan is under some sort of unrest and that momentum is gathering," she said.
"I think this is a day, at the end of Ramadan and the beginning of the Eid celebrations, that people wanted to vent their anger at what they've been hearing, and hopefully it will be calm after that."
Protests spread
In an interview with a US network on Friday, Jones said that the planned Quran-burning will 'not go ahead' [AFP] Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president, used his Eid message to the nation to condemn the plan by the Dove World Outreach Centre.He called on Jones to "not even think" about burning Qurans because "it was an insult to [Muslim] nations".
On Thursday, the United Nations' top diplomat in Afghanistan told the Reuters news agency that protests over the plan could force the delay of parliamentary elections set for September 18.
The poll is seen as a key test of stability in Afghanistan before Obama conducts a war strategy review in December.
The backlash against the event appeared to be spreading around the world on Friday.
In Pakistan, protesters marched in the cities of Peshawar and Karachi over the proposed burning of Qurans, shouting anti-US slogans.
Demonstrators also gathered in India, Indonesia, Gaza and Jerusalem.
The US state department has issued a warning to US citizens abroad that they face an increased risk of being attacked as a result of the controversy.
"The potential for further protests and demonstrations, some of which may turn violent, remains high," the department said in a special note, urging Americans to avoid areas where protests might occur.
A state department spokesman said that US embassies around the world have convened emergency meetings to assess the potential threat, while US embassies in Jordan, Algeria, Syria and Indonesia had issued special messages to resident American citizens to be particularly alert.
Plan 'halted'
The threat by Terry Jones, the pastor of a small fringe church in Gainesville, Florida, to burn the Qurans had drawn international condemnation and a warning from Obama that it could provoke al-Qaeda suicide bombings and incite violence around the world.
"Right now we have no plans to go ahead with the event"
Terry Jones, pastor of the Dove World Outreach Center
"Right now we have no plans to go ahead with the event," Jones confirmed to the US television programme Good Morning America on Friday.
Jones, the head of the Dove World Outreach Centre, first announced the event's suspension on Thursday, but then indicated he might reconsider, accusing Imam Muhammad Musri, a Muslim leader, of lying to him about moving a planned Islamic centre in New York.
Musri, the president of the Islamic Society of central Florida, said Jones had "stretched and exaggerated" his statements, while the sponsors of the New York mosque denied any agreement had been reached.
Jones has said he will fly with Musri to New York on Saturday to meet with Feisal Abdul Rauf, the imam who plans to build the New York centre.
"We believe that the imam is going to keep his word, what he promised us yesterday ... We believe that we are, as he said, and promised, going to meet with the imam in New York tomorrow," Jones told Good Morning America.
The proposed location of the New York centre - near the "ground zero" site of the September 11 attacks - has drawn opposition from many Americans who say it is insensitive to families of victims of the nearly 3,000 people killed that day.
'Profound damage'
Speaking on Friday, Barack Obama said that the Quran-burning event could cause "profound damage" to US interests abroad.
"The idea that we would burn the sacred text of someone else's religion is contrary to what this country stands for," the US president told a news conference in Washington.
Other world leaders and international bodies have also denounced Jones' plan to burn copies of Islam's holy book on Saturday.
Interpol, the international police agency, warned governments worldwide of an increased risk of "terrorist attacks" if the burning went ahead.
The US has legal protections for the right to free expression and there was little that law enforcement authorities could do to stop Jones from going ahead, other than citing him under local by-laws against public burning.
Source:
Al Jazeera and agencies
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Topics in this article People
Country
City
Organisation
- North Atlantic Treaty Organization
- al-Qaeda
- Dove World Outreach Center
- US state department
- international police
- Dove World Outreach Centre
- United Nations
- Mehr
- Islamic Society
- International Security Assistance Force in Kabul
- Interpol
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