Cutting across party lines and ideological and religious spectrum, Americans strongly came out in open against the plans of a Florida Pastor to burn the Holy Quran on the ninth anniversary of 9/11 coming Saturday. However, the Pastor, who has some 50 followers remained adamant and said he is going ahead with his plan to burn the Holy Quran on Saturday.
Meanwhile, top Republican leader and former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin in her posting on the Facebook and Twitter urged the Pastor to not to go ahead with his planned burning of the Quran. "It will feed the fire of caustic rhetoric and appear as nothing more than mean-spirited religious intolerance. Don't feed that fire," Palin urged the Pastor.
"Book burning is antithetical to American ideals. People have a constitutional right to burn a Koran if they want to, but doing so is insensitive and an unnecessary provocation – much like building a mosque at Ground Zero," Palin said. "It's regrettable that a pastor in Gainesville, Florida with a church of no more than 50 people can make this outrageous and distressful, disgraceful plan and get the world's attention, but that's the world we live in right now," Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said.
"It doesn't, in any way, represent America or Americans or American Government or American religious or political leadership. And we are, as you've seen in the last few days, speaking out," Clinton said referring to the outcry against such a move by the Florida Pastor. "General Petraeus made the very powerful point that as seemingly small a group of people doing this, the fact is that it will have potentially great harm for our troops. So we are hoping that the Pastor decides not to do this," Clinton said.
{{/usCountry}}"It doesn't, in any way, represent America or Americans or American Government or American religious or political leadership. And we are, as you've seen in the last few days, speaking out," Clinton said referring to the outcry against such a move by the Florida Pastor. "General Petraeus made the very powerful point that as seemingly small a group of people doing this, the fact is that it will have potentially great harm for our troops. So we are hoping that the Pastor decides not to do this," Clinton said.
{{/usCountry}}"The proposed action demonstrates contempt for the principles of religious freedom and equality on which our nation is founded, and does not in any way, shape or form represent American values," said Howard Berman, Chairman of House Committee on Foreign Affairs.
"It would undermine efforts to build bridges between the United States and Muslim countries, and, as General Petraeus stated, would be used by our enemies 'to inflame public opinion and incite violence' against our soldiers and other Americans overseas," he said. "No one is questioning the right to do these things. We are questioning whether that's advisable considering the consequences that could occur," Pentagon spokesman Col David Lapan said.