(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - Terry Jones had earlier vowed publicly in a TV program that he “can absolutely guarantee” that there would be no burning of the Holy Qur'an at his church.
However, on March 20, Jones, broke his public promise and burned the holy Qur'an after holding a mock trial at his fringe church, Dove World Outreach Center, in the city of Gainesville, in the southeastern coastal State of Florida.
“People should have a more rational, calm reaction to this kind of publicity-seeking event by a fringe character that is rejected across the board in the United States,” said Ibrahim Hooper of Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR.)
“I think the best thing to do to Terry Jones is to ignore him. That is what he would hate the most. He is a publicity-seeker who will do anything to gain the limelight. So we should not give him what he seeks,” he added.
The move came as US President Barack Obama had earlier tried to calm tensions by rhetorically denouncing the sacrilege effort, calling the Quran-burning publicity a display of extreme intolerance and bigotry.
The Quran-burning campaign in the US led to two days of deadly protests in Afghanistan early in April and intensified anti-Western sentiments in the Muslim world.
Ten foreign workers for the United Nations were killed after a small number of furious protesters stormed the UN headquarters in the northern Afghan city of Mazar-i-Sharif.
At least ten Afghans were killed and 83 others wounded as well in the southern city of Kandahar on Saturday in a second day of violent protests over the desecration of the holy Qur'an.
Jones had first planned to burn the holy book last year on the anniversary of September 11, 2001 incidents but changed his mind due to a massive international condemnation of the repulsive move, sanctioned by US authorities as 'freedom of expression.'
The United States has expelled or detained individual Muslims in America merely for expressing views critical of US support for Israeli atrocities against Palestinians and its selective policy in waging a global 'war on terror' opposed to US.
Moreover, a number of Western European countries, including Germany and Austria, have laws that imprisons individuals for expressing views that denies the official version of the so-called Holocaust..
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