Al-Quran-burning plan draws worldwide condemnation

AFGHAN police went on alert yesterday to guard against demonstrations triggered by a US church's plan to burn a copy of the Al-Quran on the anniversary of the Sept 11 attacks which has drawn global condemnation.

Tension has risen with the approach of the ninth anniversary on Saturday of the Sept 11 hijacked airliner attacks on the United States and the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadhan. Aidil Fitri is expected to be celebrated today or tomorrow.

Plans by Terry Jones, the pastor of a small church in Gainesville, Florida, to burn a copy of the holy Muslim book have added to what US religious leaders have described as an "anti-Muslim frenzy".

The United Nations said such an act would be "abhorrent".

"On behalf of the United Nations and the whole international community present in Afghanistan, I would like to express in the strongest possible terms our concern and indeed outrage at the announcement by a small religious group abroad of their intention to burn copies of the holy book of Al-Quran," United Nations envoy Staffan de Mastura said in a statement issued in Kabul.

The planned Quran-burning by the Dove World Outreach Center sparked protests by several hundred Afghans in Kabul this week, mostly students from religious schools. Gathered outside a mosque in the Afghan capital, they chanted "Death to America".

A senior police official in Kabul, who asked not to be identified, said an Interior Ministry anti-demonstration unit had been put on high alert yesterday in case protests broke out.

There have been frequent protests in the past over similar incidents. In 2006, about a dozen people were killed in violent protests in Kabul after a Danish newspaper published offending cartoons and a similar number died in another protest a year earlier.

Last January, Afghan troops shot and killed eight protesters and wounded 13 in southern Helmand province during a riot triggered by the reported desecration of the Al-Quran.

Two of the top US commanders in Afghanistan have said the Florida church's plan risked undermining US President Barack Obama's efforts to reach out to the world's 1.5 billion Muslims.

Reuters