To commemorate the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, a pastor in Florida announced plans on Wednesday to burn copies of the Koran. The Vatican has expressed "great concern," calling it an “outrageous act.”
A church in Florida has plans to commemorate the September 11th attacks in the United States by burning copies of the Koran.
A Vatican spokesman, father Federico Lombardi, has expressed great concern over the planned commemoration of the hijack attacks, which killed almost three thousand people.
[Father Federico Lombardi, Vatican Spokesman]:
"The terrorist attack of September 11 was surely a horrendous crime and we cannot forget the incredible loss of human life and the suffering that it had caused but the correct way to demonstrate our horror for this crime is surely not the outrage against the sacred book of an immense religious community, the Muslim world, for which we need to demonstrate profound respect.”
A Vatican statement issued earlier in the day called the act “outrageous and grave,” and Lombardi said it would lead to more violence.
[Father Federico Lombardi, Vatican Spokesman]:
"This act would only call for new hate and violence. It goes directly in the opposite direction to the building of peace to which we all, as faithful in god and as people of peace, are called.”
Leaders ranging from U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to the head of the Islamic Society of North America and the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan have denounced the plans.
