11/09/2010 US on Saturday is planning to commemorate the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks amid high tensions over threats to burn the holy Quran.
A series of ceremonies was planned on Saturday to commemorate the nearly 3,000 people killed when members of al-Qaeda hijacked four planes, crashing two of them into the World Trade Centre and another into the Pentagon.
US President Barack Obama, was to attend a memorial service at the Pentagon, while Joseph Biden, the vice-president, was to be in New York, where the names of the victims who died there were to be read out at the so-called Ground Zero site.
These commemorations were overshadowed in the ninth anniversary of the September attacks by a Florida pastor's plan to burn the holy Quran in order to "send message" to the Muslims. But on Thursday the Rev. Terry Jones offered to scrap the plan if an Islamic center being built two blocks away from Ground Zero was relocated.
On Friday Jones confirmed that he had "no plans to go ahead with the event" after pleas from the Obama, the Vatican and several other world leaders warning of a catastrophe for Western-Muslim relations.
He said he had received assurances delivered by a local Florida imam that the Islamic center will be relocated.
However, the New York planners of the center have said they did not speak to the Florida imam, and would not be moving their project.
Jones is in New York on Saturday where he said he will meet the imam of the center Sheikh Faisal Abdul Rauf to discuss plans for building of the new mosque.
The pastor's plan sparked international condemnations against the “aggressive” act. Thousands of Muslims all over the world took to streets to protest against the threat.
About 2,000 people rallied late Friday near Ground Zero in New York to support the building of a mosque there.
Protestors, many holding lighted candles, said those trying to stop construction of a mosque near the site of the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center were demonizing Muslims and undermining fundamental US rights.
Many nations have separately called on US President Barack Obama to take strong action against the move. Others denounced this act like the UN, EU, Vatican, Obama who urged respect for other religious faiths.
Quran Burning “A Step in the Direction of Hatred”
10/09/2010 An anti-Islamic preacher backed off and then threatened to reconsider burning the Quran on the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, angrily accusing a Muslim leader of lying to him Thursday with a promise to move an Islamic center and mosque away from New York's ground zero. The imam planning the center denied there was ever such a deal.
The Rev. Terry Jones generated an international firestorm with his plan to burn the holy Quran on Saturday, the ninth anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, and he has been under intense pressure to give it up. President Barack Obama urged him to listen to those better angels and give up his stunt, saying it would “endanger” U.S. troops and give “terrorists” a recruiting tool.
Standing outside his 50-member Pentecostal church, the Dove Outreach Center, alongside Imam Muhammad Musri, the president of the Islamic Society of Central Florida, Jones said he relented when Musri assured him that the New York mosque will be moved.
Hours later, after Musri and the leader of the New York mosque denied such an agreement, Jones said Musri "clearly, clearly lied to us."
"Given what we are now hearing, we are forced to rethink our decision," Jones said. "So as of right now, we are not canceling the event, but we are suspending it." Jones did not say whether the Quran burning could still be held Saturday, but he said he expected Musri to keep his word and expected the imam in New York to back up one of his own men.
But he said Thursday afternoon that he prayed about the decision and concluded that if the mosque was moved, it would be a “sign” from God to call off the Quran burning.
Two days before the previously planned Florida-based church's plan to burn the holy Quran on the ninth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, more condemnations and voices shouted against this “aggressive” act.
The OIC head Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu on Thursday expressed grave concern over the plan, describing the move as "a step in the direction of hatred."
Many nations including India, Indonesia, Iran, Lebanon, Malaysia and Pakistan have separately called on US President Barack Obama to take strong action against the move.
Others denounced this act like the UN, EU, Obama, Vatican.
Massive demonstrations have been held in many countries against the US church's plans. Thousands of Afghans marched through a small town northeast of Kabul on Thursday, chanting anti-US slogans to protest against the Quran-burning plans. There have also been several protests in Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim-majority country.
The Afghan president said Friday the US pastor "should not even think" of burning the Quran, as Indonesia's leader said nothing less than world peace was at stake.
In a turbulent start to the festival of Eid al-Fitr, when Muslims worldwide mark the end of the Ramadan fasting month, radical Florida evangelist Terry Jones issued a heavily conditioned offer to call off his event.
"We have heard that in the US, a pastor has decided to insult Qurans. Now although we have heard that they are not doing this, we tell them they should not even think of it," Afghan President Hamid Karzai said. "By burning the Quran they cannot harm it. The Quran is in the hearts and minds of one-and-a-half billion people. (But) insulting the Quran is an insult to nations," Karzai said in an Eid message.
Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono lashed out anew against Jones and his tiny evangelical denomination a day after calling on Obama to intervene. "This threatens peace and international security. This is something that endangers harmony among religious people," Yudhoyono said in a nationally televised address marking the end of Ramadan.
"I'm of course aware of the reported cancellation of the deplorable act by Terry Jones. However, none of us can be complacent until such a despicable idea is totally extinguished," he said. "Therefore I continue to urge the government and people of the United States to ensure the prevention of such an incomprehensible, irrational and immoral act."
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Meanwhile, the Palestinian Idiot mocked Haneyya's call to prepare 40000 memorisers of Quran cosidering it a call for religious war.
River to Sea
Uprooted Palestinian
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