Infamous Quran-burning pastor Terry Jones has hijacked the Christian voice and caused misunderstanding about the faith as well as the U.S. government among Muslims around the world, said a Florida imam who last year prevented Jones from burning the Islamic holy book.
Imam Muhammad Musri, president of the Islamic Society of Central Florida, said many overseas Muslims who saw the video of Jones putting the Quran on trial and then subsequently burning the book as punishment believe that it was done in a U.S. court and the U.S. government was behind the intentionally offensive act.
Jones, in the video, had set up his church as a makeshift court with a judge, flag, a jury box, a prosecutor, and defense stand. During the March 20 mock trial, the Quran was found “guilty of causing murder, rape and terrorism” and was burned as punishment. Jones maintained that a separate jury delivered the guilty verdict.
“So in their view the U.S. government carried on this trial,” explained Musri in an Odyssey Networks video posted Wednesday. “So the Terry Joneses of the world are hijacking the Christian voice and the Muslim world is seeing the West from the point of view that these are the Christians, these are the Americans.”
Although there was little media coverage of the mock trial in the United States, a video of the trial posted online made its way to predominantly Muslim nations, including Afghanistan. Afghan President Hamid Karzai denounced the burning of the Quran and called on the U.S. government to prosecute those responsible for the action.
Days after Karzai’s remark, hundreds of angry protesters stormed a United Nations building in Afghanistan and attacked security guards and workers. The April 1 attack on the U.N. base in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif left at least 22 people dead.
Musri, in the Odyssey video, also denounced Muslim extremists.
To read more, click here.
No comments:
Post a Comment