Religious intolerance spreads

http://www.smh.com.au

WASHINGTON: Normally an occasion of sombre national unity, this year's commemoration of the September 11 attacks on the US threatens to further divide a nation struggling with religious tension.

Plans - on hold for now - by an evangelical Southern preacher to burn Korans have inflamed passions across the country and around the world, dragging the President into a conflict he would rather have avoided.

The Christian pastor who had threatened to build the bonfire as a protest against Islamic extremism was rethinking his position after his hopes appeared dashed that a planned Muslim cultural centre to be built near Ground Zero would be relocated.

In a series of bizarre twists - including a spurned offer by Donald Trump to buy the building in Manhattan for the price paid plus 25 per cent - Pastor Terry Jones said he had abandoned his plan for the burning after assurances the Manhattan mosque would be moved.

''[The imam behind the development] has agreed to move [the mosque],'' Mr Jones said. ''And we have agreed to cancel our event. Americans don't want the mosque there and, of course, Muslims don't want us to burn Korans.''

However, Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, the founder of the Cordoba Initiative, a non-profit organisation behind the development, denied any deal had been struck.

The plan to burn 200 Korans in Gainesville had provoked protests and a sharp rebuke from President Barack Obama, who called on the pastor to abandon his ''destructive act''.

The US Defence Secretary, Robert Gates, contacted Mr Jones to express his concerns. The pastor, whose Pentecostal congregation numbers just 30, has long damned Islam as a satanic faith, though he had not previously entered the debate over the New York mosque.

Mr Jones, 58, who was joined at the news conference by Imam Muhammad Musri, described the alleged relocation deal as a ''sign from God'' that had convinced him to cancel his protest. Later, Mr Musri denied any deal, saying he had only offered to set up a meeting between Mr Jones, himself and Mr Abdul Rauf. He said Mr Jones had ''dressed up'' his statement to ''save face''. But Mr Jones claimed Mr Musri had ''clearly, clearly lied to us''.

''Given what we are now hearing, we are forced to rethink our decision,'' he said. ''So, as of right now, we are not cancelling the event, but we are suspending it.''

The issue spotlights a creeping intolerance in the US, with the sombre ninth anniversary of the attacks on the US in danger of being overshadowed.

The anniversary coincides with the end of Ramadan. But the festival is being marred by charges of intolerance to Islam: Americans are protesting against planned mosques and Muslim centres in at least 10 states.

A Washington Post-ABC poll this week found 49 per cent of Americans disapproved of Islam, the highest level since 2001. The lowest was 24 per cent in 2002.

Mr Obama, whom one-in-five Americans incorrectly believe is a Muslim, has been treading cautiously. While defending the Islamic centre as a constitutional right, he was slow to comment on the Koran burning in fear of inflaming the situation.

A former adviser to four US presidents, Harvard University's David Gergen, said he regretted Mr Obama's involvement. ''I think we've all been sucked in involuntarily into a freak show,'' he said, describing Mr Jones as ''not just a lunatic'' but ''a jerk … [for putting] the country through this''.

But a Republican congressman, Ron Paul, of Texas, questioned whether the burning would make a difference to how Americans were perceived abroad.

''Our policies of torture, targeted assassination, invasion of Muslim countries and unintended infliction of civilian casualties in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan are also provocative,'' he said.

''Pictures of victims of torture as well as innocent people killed by drones and stray bombs are every bit as bad as burning the Koran.''