BY John Newton | April 4 | 
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Archbishop decries Qur’an burning and protests
The Church's most senior clergyman in in Pakistan has called for the arrest of the US pastor whose decision to burn the Qur’an triggered protests resulting in the deaths of at least 24 people in Afghanistan.
Archbishop Lawrence Saldanha of Lahore (above) condemned the recent desecration of the Qur’an carried out by Pastor Wayne Sapp under the supervision of Pastor Terry Jones.
“The US government should detain the pastor for some time,” the archbishop, who is soon to retire as president of the Catholic Bishops’ in the country, told charity Aid to the Church in Need. “In view of the effects his actions have had all over the world, he should be controlled and understand the harm that has been done.”
Protests have been held in many parts of the Muslim world since the Qur’an burning took place at the Dove World Outreach Centre in Florida on March 20. In Afghanistan, an attack on a UN base on last Friday in the city of Mazar-e-Sharif killed 14 people, seven of them US staff. The following day at least 10 people were killed in the southern city of Kandahar. In Pakistan and the Qur’an-burning has been linked to attacks on three churches across the country, which is home to 2.5 million Christians.
Archbishop Saldanha added: “The US government talks about religious freedom—but we call upon the US government to prevent such actions by extremists and other fundamentalist Christians.”
The archbishop questioned reports from Pakistan linking unrest sparked by the Qur’an-burning to recent attacks on three churches but stressed the strength of feeling expressed by Muslims who have protested across the country.
“Although there have not been any reactions against Christians, it could become ugly,” he said.
In a statement on the incident released on Saturday, President Barak Obama said: “The desecration of any holy text, including the Qur’an is an act of extreme intolerance and bigotry.
“However, to attack and kill innocent people in response is outrageous and an affront to human decency and dignity.”
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So Pastor Sapp has exercised his first Amendment Right in USA. Before doing so, however, he should have considered the potential consequences outside his country. His actions inflamed Muslims, who have a tendency to be easily inflamed, and subsequent anti-Christian attrocities appear to have been a direct result.
I was taught that with every right goes a responsibility to use that right wisely. Did the Pastor really think Muslims would keep their reaction to symbolically burning a few Bibles? If he did, I fear he has not been paying attention to recent events in the Muslim world.
Actually,the media in the United states have been making a concerted effort to avoid giving attention to certain fundamentalist preachers,who have a knack of inciting many groups,not just Muslims. Some of these preachers are also anti-Catholic and anti-Semitic. The fact that they are so out of the mainstream of American life bestows on them some notoriety. Someone posted the video on Youtube,and the Afghans went wild. Interestingly enough,the reaction was more mild in most other Islamic countries. Many non-Muslim american (myself included)have read the Quran.
People throw away religious books and items of other religions all the time. We have all been given or bought books that we later decide we do not want and do not want to pass around, so they are thrown away. The mistake this minister made was telling anyone about it. He did it to antigonize and should not have done so. Never-the-less, Muslims do it too. One cannot take any non-Islamic religous items, including Bibles, into Saudi Arabia or many other Muslim countries. When the Muslim leaders find such religious items on a person they confiscate them and take them away. I am sure they tear them apart if they are prayer beads, throw them away or burn them if they are Bibles. The Muslims do it. Almost everyone does it. For some radical Muslims, the burning of the Koran is just an excuse to justify murdering innocent people. I blame the media, too, for keeping this fight going. It should be ignored.
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