A small group of conservative Christians tore some pages from a Holy Quran in a protest outside the White House yesterday to denounce what they called the “charade of Islam” on the anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks.
“Part of why we’re doing that, please hear me: the charade that Islam is a peaceful religion must end,” said Randall Terry, a leading anti-abortion campaigner, and one of six people who took part in the protest.
Another activist, Andrew Beacham, read out a few Quran passages calling for hatred towards Christians and Jews, and then ripped those pages from an English paperback edition of the Islamic holy book.
Copies of the Quran were desecrated in two other incidents — one behind the gates of a Christian religious compound in Kansas and the other in front of cameras not far from ground zero.
The protests came as the United States marked the sombre ninth anniversary of the September 11 attacks.
After days of global outrage and protests, Pastor Terry Jones, from Gainesville, said yesterday: “We will definitely not burn the Quran, no.” “Not today, not ever,” he told NBC television when pressed for his plans.
President Barack Obama told a deeply polarized America yesterday that Islam was not the enemy as the 9/11 ceremonies took place.
“As Americans we will not and never will be at war with Islam. It was not a religion that attacked us that September day. It was Al Qaeda, (a) sorry band of men, which perverts religion,” Obama said.
Moving remembrance ceremonies were held to honour the nearly 3,000 people killed when Al Qaeda extremists slammed airliners into New York’s World Trade Center, the Pentagon outside Washington and a field in Pennsylvania.
Later in the day, thousands of people took to the streets in duelling protests over building a mosque close to Ground Zero, triggering noisy sidewalk arguments closely watched by a tight police guard.
About 1,500 people first marched in favour of a Muslim organisation’s right to build a Muslim community centre. Later, about 2,000 people gathered close by for a separate rally against the mosque.
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