Iran on Monday slammed a US pastor’s burning of a Quran, calling it provocative and demanding US authorities take action to prevent any recurrence.
Iran’s foreign ministry said in a statement carried by the official IRNA news agency that it “strongly condemns this ridiculous, insulting and provoking act by a so-called American priest in overt contempt of the holy Quran.”
The condemnation was in reaction to a Saturday ceremony in which Florida pastor Terry Jones set fire to the Muslim holy book and a depiction of the prophet Mohammed to protest Iran’s imprisonment of an Iranian Christian clergyman, Yousef Nadarkhani.
The act was broadcast online in a YouTube video that climaxed with Jones and a handful of followers repeating the US oath of allegiance as the Quran burned.
Jones, who rebuffed a US Defence Department request to desist out of fear for US troops’ safety abroad, was behind a March 2011 burning of the Quran by his assistant that triggered violence in northern Afghanistan in which at least 12 people were killed.
Iran’s foreign ministry said the latest burning was the result of “Islamophobia” in the West.
It said the world was “awaiting a quick, serious and frank response by the US government to this act so it is never repeated.”
The ministry said the Quran burning “undoubtedly creates religious hatred and will provoke Muslim anger worldwide.”
The act by Jones came as US and Iranian officials prepared for important talks on Tehran’s nuclear programme that are to be held in Baghdad on May 23.
While Iran is expressing optimism over those talks, any failure could stoke tensions between the Islamic republic and the West and strengthen the possibility of military action by the United States or Israel.
Nadarkhani, the Christian evangelical pastor in prison in Iran, was arrested in 2009 and condemned to death for converting to Christianity when he was 19.
Iran’s supreme court overturned the death sentence in July 2011 and a retrial took place in September 2011, but no verdict was made public.
Nadarkhani’s lawyer, Mohammad Ali Dadkhah, who himself risks incarceration for defending the pastor and a dissident in another case, told AFP that his client “must be released,” based on religious edicts from prominent Iranian clerics.
The lawyer declined to comment on the Quran burning protest for Nadarkhani in the United States.
It is high time OIC must immediately announce, as a punishment for the desecration of Holy Quran by the pastor in USA, cessation of oil supplies to US government and it's troops stationed in any OIC country. These Americans only understand one language and that is hit them hard on the face to break their jaw.
It's just a crazy book written by man; there's nothing holy or admirable about it. There are so many real problems in the world, yet Muslims are incited to murderous rampages over silly book burnings and cartoons. If Allah is so real or powerful, then let Allah deal with this. Why don't Muslims care more about the appalling lack or basic human rights and decent living conditions in Islamic lands? Islam is backwards, brainwashed, and violent. Muslims turn a blind eye to the horrors of Islam, yet go berserk over burned books or cartoon jokes? Islam is a recipe for a miserable existence, and is an utter failure as a social/political/religious system. Islams cries foul and wants respect, yet it does nothing to respect non-Muslims or to earn respect. Islam is frightening and pure evil. If Islam were true, don't you think we would all be Muslims? One is only Muslim if one has the terrible misfortune of being forced into it from birth after being born in a Muslim land; Islam is simply "inherited" from misguided, brainwashed Muslim parents. And in the West, one would not be imprisoned for being Muslim, and Muslims would scream bloody murder if that occurred; so why is it acceptable for non-Muslims to be imprisoned in Islamic lands?
Asad,
If you were to be correct in your assumptions, tell me how did Indonesia and Malaysia converted to Islam? Muslim armies never attacked those lands.
Muslims allowed both Christians and Jews to worship in Alquds. Neither Christians allowed Jews nor Jews allowed Christians to worship in Alquds before Islam.
Mr .Assad is just indulging in emotional catharsis. He has the right to freedom of speech.
We should not be offended by him. Any body can burn a koran but nobody can burn the
Koran which exists in my heart.
Our prophet(BPH) never used to get offended.
Mr M.M.Khan…we need more people like you in Pakistan.
Wow this guy reminds me of the First 3 Caliphas – Abu Baker (Lora), Ummar (Lora) and Usman (Lora)…….
Seems like he rather molest a little child then practice his religions….OH WAIT UMMAR DID THAT ALSO!
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