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Thousands of Afghans protest U.S. Koran-burning plan

By Sayed Salahuddin and David Alexander
KABUL/WASHINGTON | Fri Sep 10, 2010 8:28am EDT

KABUL/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The pastor of a small Florida church, facing an outpouring of concern from U.S. leaders and anger from Muslims worldwide, said on Friday he did not plan to burn copies of the Koran on the anniversary of the September 11 attacks.

But Pastor Terry Jones appeared to leave open the possibility he could change his mind if a proposed meeting fails to take place on Saturday in New York with Muslim leaders planning to build an Islamic center and mosque near the site of the September 11 attacks. "Right now we have plans not to do it (burn the Koran)," Jones told ABC's "Good Morning America." Jones has said a Florida imam had promised him a meeting with the New York imam in exchange for canceling the Koran-burning.

"We believe that the imam is going to keep his word, what he promised us yesterday ... We believe that we are, as he said and promised, going to meet with the imam in New York tomorrow." Imam Muhammad Musri, president of the Islamic Society of Central Florida, told ABC he had not promised that the Islamic center in New York would be moved. Musri said he had only agreed to make contact with the New York organizers, set up a meeting and make the case for shifting the site.

"The meeting will happen," Musri told ABC. But he added that Jones "stretched and exaggerated my statements ... I told him I'm willing to make contact as an imam to the imam in New York, Muslim to Muslim, and ask on his behalf to schedule a meeting." The threatened Koran-burning by the tiny Dove World Outreach Center has touched off anger in the Muslim world. Thousands of people took to the streets across Afghanistan on Friday, some threatening to attack U.S. bases.

One protester was shot dead and several were wounded outside a German-run NATO base in northeast Afghanistan and NATO said it was investigating. Demonstrations later spread to the capital, Kabul, and at least four other provinces. Officials said the German-run base was singled out after German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Wednesday paid tribute to freedom of speech at a ceremony for a Dane whose cartoon of the Prophet Mohammad sparked deadly protests five years ago.

Jones' plan to burn the Koran drew criticism on Thursday from U.S. President Barack Obama, who warned it could provoke al Qaeda suicide bombings and other Islamist violence. U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates called Jones directly on Thursday to urge him not to go ahead, a Pentagon official said. Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said Gates had expressed "grave concern" in the brief telephone call with Jones that the Koran burning "would put the lives of our forces at risk, especially in Iraq and Afghanistan."

A crowd, estimated at 10,000 by a government official, poured out of mosques into the streets of Faizabad, the capital of Badakhshan in Afghanistan's northeast, after special prayers for Eid al-Fitr, the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan. One protester was shot dead when a smaller group attacked a German-run NATO base in Faizabad, hurling stones at the outpost, a spokesman for the provincial government said.

Afghan security forces rushed to the scene to restore order and three police were hurt when hit by stones thrown by the crowd, the spokesman said. A spokesman for the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force in Kabul said ISAF was aware of protests happening in Faizabad and were checking the incident. The protests died down later in the day. Eight Christian aid workers were killed by unidentified gunmen in remote and rugged Badakhshan last month.

"WE WILL ATTACK BASES"

Several hundred gathered in a northern district of Kabul, while about 2,000 marched on a government building in western Farah, officials and witnesses said. There were also protests in nearby Badghis in the northwest and Ghor and Herat in the west. Similar protests over perceived desecration of Muslim symbols have led to dozens of deaths in Afghanistan in recent years, including after a Danish newspaper published a cartoon depicting the Prophet Mohammad in 2005.

In eastern Nangahar, tribal chiefs threatened to attack NATO bases near the Pakistan border if Jones went ahead with the plan. "If they do this, we will attack American bases and close the highway used by convoys supplying American troops," a cleric named Zahidullah told Reuters. At mosques in the capital, clerics also labeled the plan dangerous. "Muslims are ready to sacrifice their sons, fathers and mothers for Islam and the Koran," one preacher said at one Kabul mosque to cries of "Allahu Akbar" (God is Greatest).

"RETHINK DECISION"

Jones said he had spoken to Musri, president of the Islamic Society of Central Florida, and had been assured that a mosque planned for a site in New York near the September 11, 2001, World Trade Center attacks would be moved. Musri and the sponsor of the New York mosque later denied such an agreement had been reached.

The proposed location of the New York center has drawn opposition from many Americans who say it is insensitive to families of victims of the attacks that killed nearly 3,000. Jones said he would fly to New York on Saturday with Musri to meet the New York imam at the center of the controversy, Feisal Abdul Rauf. Sharif el-Gamal, project developer for the New York mosque, said in a statement it was untrue the center was to be moved.

(Additional reporting by Ben Gruber in GAINESVILLE, Pascal Fletcher and Kevin Gray in MIAMI, TEHRAN bureau, and Matt Spetalnick, Alister Bull, Andrew Quinn and Phil Stewart in WASHINGTON; Writing by Paul Tait; Editing by Nick Macfie and Vicki Allen)