THE UNITED NATIONS Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is the latest figure to condemn the plans of an American evangelical church pastor to burn copies of the Qu’ran this Saturday, to mark the anniversary of the 11 September terrorist attacks.

The plans have provoked stern criticism from religious leaders and politicians across the United States and the world. The highest ranking US official to condemn the pastor’s plans has been Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who has called the plans “disrespectful” and “disgraceful”.

Meanwhile, the US attorney general Eric Holder said the protest was “idiotic and dangerous” – and a state department spokesman went so far as to call the action “un-American”.

Even Sarah Palin, who has been a stern critic of the planned Islamic center in New York, called on the pastor to stand down on Wednesday.

Plain wrote on her Facebook page that the Qu’ran burning was “insensitive and an unnecessary provocation – much like building a mosque at Ground Zero.”

Safety concerns

David Petraeus, the US and Nato commander in Afghanistan, expressed grave concern over the provocative action saying that it would endanger the lives of American troops abroad. Likewise, the FBI stated that the action was likely to “inspire retaliatory attacks against US facilities overseas”.

The pastor of the church Pastor Terry Jones has responded to concerns about the safety of American citizens, saying to CNN:

We would of course be very, very moved and very sad by that, but we would not feel responsible … We are not going to be controlled by fears and threats.

Jones, who runs the Dove World Outreach Centre, said that the plans to burn 200 copies of the holy book would go ahead, despite the fact that he has received more than 100 death threats.

“If we don’t do it, when do we stop backing down?” he told ABC television.

He has defended his idea to start the “International Burn a Koran Day”, and has written on his Facebook page:

Eternal fire is the only destination the Koran can lead people to so we want to put the Koran in it’s place – the fire!

In Washington, the Council on American-Islamic Relations has announced a “Learn, Don’t Burn” initiative, and plan to to distribute 200,000 copies of the Qu’ran to replace the 200 copies that the Florida church plans to burn.