US pastor supervises Quran burning, sparking outrage in Pak

Lalit K Jha
Washington/Islamabad, Mar 22 (PTI) Controversial
American pastor Terry Jones, who oversaw the burning of the
holy Quran by an evangelical preacher in a Florida church,
today prompted Pakistan to condemn it as a "despicable act"
aimed at provoking discord among people across the world.
Jones, who oversaw the burning of the scripture
by pastor Wayne Sapp on Sunday, said that "trial" of the holy
Quran was held by a jury of 12 church members and volunteers,
with a Dallas Imam as a defence lawyer.
"We had a court process. We tried to set it up as fair
as possible, which you can imagine, of course, is very
difficult," Jones was quoted as saying by The USA Today.
The punishment — burning the book after it had been
soaked in kerosene for an hour — was determined from four
choices on his organisation's Facebook page.
Pakistan's Foreign Office in a statement in Islamabad
said the burning" of the Quran was a "despicable act".
"Such a reprehensible act could only be the work of
extremists and is evidently designed to provoke dissent and
discord among communities and people across the world," said
Hina Rabbani Khar, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs.
President Asif Ali Zardari too condemned the
desecration of the Quran during his address to a joint sitting
of parliament this afternoon.
"I, on behalf of the people and government, and my
behalf strongly condemn the deliberate desecration of the Holy
Quran by a fanatic in Florida," he said.
"We condemn this act in the strongest possible words.
It is a serious setback to the efforts at promoting harmony
among civilised communities throughout the world," he added.
The Muslim community in the United States has declined
to respond to the act by Jones and his small group of
followers.
"Terry Jones had his 15 minutes of fame and we're not
going to help him get another few minutes," said Ibrahim
Hooper, a spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic
Relations.
However, it has sparked an angry outrage in Pakistan
with Jamaat-ud-Dawah announcing a reward of Rs 10 crore for
anyone who kills Jones.
The reward was announced by senior JuD leader Amir
Hamza, a close aide of the group’s chief Hafiz Muhammad Saeed,
while chairing a meeting of the Tehrik Hurmat-e-Rasool.
Leaders of dozens of religious groups attended the
meeting held in Lahore. The meeting also decided to organise a
protest on Friday against the desecration.
Rallies will be held in cities and towns across
Pakistan, said a statement issued the religious groups.
A demonstration will also be held in Lahore on
Wednesday.
The religious groups asked traders, lawyers,
students, members of civil society organisations and farmers
to join the protests.
The meeting claimed "Crusaders and Zionists" were
openly committing blasphemous acts under the supervision of
the US administration and the Pope following "their defeat in
Afghanistan and Iraq".

Jones considered the burning of Quran as a one-time
event and said that he had no plans to do it on a mass scale.
The US Embassy in Islamabad, in a statement issued
today, condemned the burning of the Quran and described it as
"an isolated act done by a small group of people that is
contrary to American traditions."
The event did not reflect the "general sentiment of
respect toward Islam by the people of the US," said Embassy
spokesman Alberto Rodriguez.
"The deliberate destruction of any holy book is an
abhorrent act," said US Ambassador Cameron Munter.
"The US commitment to freedom of religion and freedom
of expression goes back to the founding of our nation and is
enshrined in the constitution. We absolutely reject religious
intolerance in any form," he said.
However, Jamaat-ud-dawa, a front for the
Lashkar-e-Taiba, called for "jihad', acussing the US
administration and army and the Pope of patronising those who
published blasphemous cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed.
They are “destroying world peace” and these acts are
the hurting the sentiments of Muslims, it said in a statement.
Islamic countries should quit the UN if it fails to
stop such acts and Muslims should give a befitting reply to
people like Jones so that they do not commit such acts in
future, the JuD statement said.
The Islamist groups also decided to convene meeting
of the heads of political and religious parties to frame a
"policy to be presented to the world leaders".
Pakistan Minister of State Khar said such sacrilegious
acts go against the concept of inter-faith harmony.
"There could be no justification for such acts. This
has deeply hurt the feelings of the people of Pakistan and
Muslims all over the world," she said.
Pakistan expects the US administration, the American
people and all civilised societies to take "due cognisance and
express their revulsion on this sacrilegious act," the
Pakistan Foreign Office statement said.
"As a strong proponent of inter-faith harmony,
Pakistan believes that in troubled times, civilised peoples
and societies must resist and oppose any tendency towards
extremism of any kind," it said.