Quran Or Koran Burning, Buddha Statues Destroying and Holocaust Denying

Siddhi B. Ranjitkar

Pastor Terry Jones of the Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville of Florida in the US has planned to burn hundreds of copies of the Quran on Saturday to coincide with the ninth anniversary of the September 11 attacks on New York City provoking protests all around the world. Pastor Jones has already called off the plan on making bonfire of Koran. Muslims and other people concerned with the burning of Koran can have sound sleep.

Pastor Dave Burke of Bethany Church, Sunderland has stated in the article titled ‘Pastor Dave Burke: Terry Jones - Saints and Monsters’ posted on BBC website on September 10, 2010 that “Terry Jones does not sound like a Christ-follower to me, any more than Islamic extremists look like any kind of a Muslim that I can find in the Koran. The extremists are hijacking religion and using it to fuel people's hatred, the faith that could make people into saints is turning them into monsters. Terry Jones is such a monster - a disgrace to the worldwide church. Of course, he will find support amongst western "Christians" who confuse their national interests with those of the real Christian movement. Their Jesus would carry a gun, wear a Rolex and circle the world in a private Jet in support of the war on terror. The real Jesus was very different. In the garden of Gethsemane his enemies came to arrest and crucify him. One of his friends, Peter, grabbed a sword and sliced the ear off one of the assailants. Jesus stopped his friend and healed the wounded attacker. Since then, those who use violence to defend Christianity have only succeeded in making people deaf - earless - to its message. Terry Jones is completely missing the point of the gospel he claims to proclaim. Peter found his way back; I sincerely hope that Terry Jones does too.”

The Quran or Koran is a precious religious book; it is a world heritage. None should dare to harm it. If someone does then it provokes the world condemnation. None can guess how many innocent lives would be lost if the plan on burning Koran has gone ahead.

The ABC News on September 10, 2010 has reported “the international police agency Interpol released a warning to governments worldwide of an increased risk of terror attacks if Jones went ahead with his plan. Leaders of Pakistan, Indonesia and India called on the United States to take action to prevent Jones from desecrating the Islamic holy book, and Afghan insurgents were distributing flyers about the Koran burn to turn villagers against Americans.”

“Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said, and "expressed his grave concerns that going forward with the Koran burning would put the lives of American service members at risk, especially in Iraq and Afghanistan, and he urged him not to proceed with the burning."

White House Spokesman Robert Gibbs Thursday said the planned bonfire of Korans was a "monumentally terrible idea." In an interview with ABC's "Good Morning America” on Thursday, President Obama has criticized the proposed burning of Islam's holy book, and called Jones' plan, should he go through with it, "a recruitment bonanza for al Qaeda."

On September 10, 2010, the VOA News posted on voanews.com/english/news/Quran-Burning-Protests-in-Afghanistan-102612729.html has reported, “thousands of Afghans protested in northern Afghanistan Friday against a U.S. pastor's threats to burn copies of the Quran. Officials said crowds poured into the streets Friday in the remote town of Fayzabad in Badakhshan province after traditional prayers at the start of the Muslim holiday Eid-al-Fitr, which marks the end of Ramadan. Afghans shout anti-U.S. slogans as they burn tires and block a highway during a protest in reaction to a small American church's threats to burn copies of the Quran, at Jalalabad, east of Kabul, Afghanistan on Sept. 10, 2010. Police said some of the protesters broke off to hurl rocks at a small NATO-run base stationed there, prompting security forces to rush in and restore order.”

A news agency called IANS has reported in its news titled ‘Quran row: Nepal Muslims warn of World War III’, “Muslims in Nepal on Friday joined the raging worldwide debate over an American pastor's plan to burn copies of the Quran to mark 9/11 terror attack anniversary, and warned the action could pit Muslims against Christians and trigger a "third world war over religion". "We condemn the announcement of Florida pastor Terry Jones that he would burn copies of the Quran on September 11, the ninth anniversary of the terror attacks in the US," Muslim Sangh Nepal, affiliated to the country's second largest political party, the Nepali Congress, said in a press statement. "It was established that the September 11 attacks were perpetrated by terrorists who have no religion or community. Torching the Quran would be an attempt to provoke the Muslim community and we condemn it as a shameful act." "We are urging the concerned state authorities to prevent it and punish the culprits," said senior vice-president of the association, Mohammad Nizamuddin. "The pastor has been vacillating on whether to go ahead or not. If he is allowed to go ahead with the burning tomorrow, it could set Muslims against Christians and trigger a third world war over religion," Nizamuddin said.”

Controversy timeline according to the BBC NEWS website:

•    July Terry Jones announces his church in Gainesville, Florida, will stage International Burn a Koran Day. National Association of Evangelicals asks the church to call off the event.
•    August 18, Gainesville Fire Rescue denies Mr. Jones a fire permit, saying the church will be fined if it goes ahead.
•    September 6, Top US commander in Afghanistan Gen David Petraeus warns that burning could put troops' lives in danger.
•     September 8, Vatican condemns bonfire plans as "outrageous."
•    September 9, US President Barack Obama joins international condemnation. Mr Jones then says he has cancelled the burning, before saying it is only suspended.
•    September 10, Protests break out in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and President Barack Obama calls for religious tolerance in the US.

Everybody needs to condemn the most uncivilized act of burning religious book such as Koran. Nepalese Muslims also have rightly come out strongly against the planned burning of Koran. Unfortunately, they had hardy said anything about the blowing up of two huge Buddha images in Kandahar, Afghanistan in 2001 even though they have been living in the land of Lord Buddha while every civilized person in the world had condemned it.

Buddhists did not say anything about Taliban blowing up the Buddha images rather prayed for the enlightenment of the perpetrators of harming the Buddha images as we Buddhists believe in ‘a person does something wrong only when s/he is not enlightened’. Some Buddhists had requested the Taliban for picking up the pieces of blown-up Buddha images but they did not even allowed such things.

“Mulla Mohammad Omar – supreme leader of Taliban militia issued an edict to tear down all ancient Buddha statues saying, “All we are breaking are stones” in the central province of Bamiyan (Kandahar), Afghanistan on Monday, February 26, 2001. Mr. Omar told the Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press (AIP), “I issued the order to destroy all statues in Afghanistan including the country’s rich pre-Islamic statues in line with Islamic beliefs. According to Islam, I don’t worry about anything. My job is the implementation of Islamic order. The breaking of statues is an Islamic order and I have given this decision in the light of a fatwa of the ulema (clerics) and the supreme court of Afghanistan. Islamic law is the only law acceptable to me. Only Allah – the Almighty deserves to be worshipped not anyone or anything else. Afghan history is secondary to the history of Islam. Whoever thinks this is harmful to the history of Afghanistan I tell them they must first see the history of Islam. Some people believe in these statues and pray to them. If people say these are not our beliefs but only part of the history of Afghanistan then all we are breaking are stones. The statues are insulting to Islam. Because God is one God, and these statues are there to be worshipped and that is wrong now or in the future. ” The Taliban Radio Shariat said the Ministry of Information and Culture and Religious Police would carry out the demolition.” This paragraph is the extract from the article titled ‘Taliban Tears Down Buddha Statues’ by Siddhi B. Ranjitkar posted on Scoop.co.nz and on siddhiranjitkar.com.

When fanatic Hindus pulled down one mosque in Ayodhaya in India saying the then Muslim King had built it over a Hindu temple; fanatic Muslims pulled down hundreds of Hindu temples in Bangladesh and in Pakistan. We don’t want to see the pulling down of temples of any faith. So, we want the Hindus in India rebuilding the mosque and Muslims of Bangladesh and Pakistan rebuilding all the temples they have destroyed.

We have a president of Iran that has said he does not believe in ‘holocaust’; he says that the Jews have framed it, and he wants to erase the map of Israel from the world map.  So, not only the Jewish people take it seriously but also the people in the world as a whole need to take the note of it so that the mass killing of people of any faith not happens in the future.

We want to live in peace and harmony and friendship with all the people of different faiths. Let us not think of erasing a map of any country from the world map. Let us respect the people of other faith so that we can earn the respect from them, too. If we burn Koran or Bible or Tripitok (Buddhist scripture), we will be destroying each other and soon this unique and beautiful world will be without the human habitation. Let us not end the humanity in this world.

September 10, 2010.