AS ANTI-AMERICAN demonstrations spread across Afghanistan and much of the Muslim world yesterday, President Barack Obama reiterated criticism of Terry Jones, the obscure fundamentalist pastor who has “suspended” his threat to burn a bonfire of Korans to mark the ninth anniversary of the atrocities of September 11th, 2010.
“There’s no doubt that when someone goes out of their way to be provocative in ways that we know can inflame the passions of over a billion Muslims around the world, at a time when we’ve got troops in a lot of Muslim countries, that’s a problem,” the US president told a White House press conference.
“The idea that we would burn the sacred text of someone else’s religion is contrary to what this country stands for,” Mr Obama said.
“My hope is that this individual prays on it and refrains from doing it. I’m also commander-in-chief, and we are seeing today riots in Kabul, riots in Afghanistan, that threaten our young men and women in uniform.”
At least one person was reported killed when a mob threw stones at a Nato base in the northern Afghan province of Badakshan. Correspondents for the Qatari network al-Jazeera reported several people were injured in demonstrations in western Afghanistan, and there were also disturbances in Nangahar, to the east.
Protesters reportedly chanted “Long live the Taliban. Long live Osama bin Laden.”
Demonstrations have also erupted in Pakistan, Indonesia and the Israeli-occupied territories, despite Pastor Jones’s announcement late on Thursday that he was “suspending” plans to burn 200 Korans this evening.
Pastor Jones made the statement after receiving a telephone call from Robert Gates, the US defence secretary, and after meeting Imam Muhammad Musri, the head of the Islamic Society of Central Florida.
Pastor Jones later claimed that Imam Musri told him the so-called “Ground Zero mosque” would be moved elsewhere in exchange for him calling off the Koran burning.
The two men plan to fly to New York today to meet with Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, the man behind plans to build the Islamic community centre two blocks north of the site of the 9/11 attacks.
Last night Pastor Jones said the failure of Imam Rauf to contact him had not dissuaded him from continuing to seek the meeting.
Asked whether his administration risked “elevating” Pastor Jones by asking Mr Gates to call him, Mr Obama said, “We’ve got an obligation to send a very clear message this kind of behaviour or threats of action put our young men and women in harm’s way.”
The president said he was concerned “to make sure that we don’t start having folks across the country think this is the way to get attention”.
Pastor Jones yesterday told Good Morning America, “Right now we have no plans to go ahead with the event.” But the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas, has threatened to burn the Koran and a US flag today.
The projected Koran burning is often linked to opposition to plans for the Islamic centre near Ground Zero. Mr Obama yesterday made his clearest statement in favour of the centre, a courageous step considering that two-thirds of Americans oppose it. “This country stands for the proposition that all men and women are created equal,” the president said.
“One inalienable right is to practise their religion freely.”
If it was possible to build a church, synagogue or Hindu temple on a site, it should also be possible to build a mosque there, he said. “We are not at war against Islam. We are at war against terrorist organisations that have distorted Islam or falsely used the banner of Islam to engage in destructive acts.”
Mr Obama continued: “We’ve got millions of Muslim Americans, our fellow citizens, in this country . . . And when we start acting as if their religion is somehow offensive, what are we saying to them?”