Clashes at anti-US protests in Tehran over Koran burning (2nd Roundup)

Sep 13, 2010, 15:51 GMT

Tehran - Iranian students and police clashed on Monday during protests in northern Tehran against Koran burning in the United States.

Hundreds of students from several Tehran universities, most of them holding a copy of the Islamic holy book, clashed with anti-riot police deployed in front of the US interest section of the Swiss embassy after the students tried to attack it.

While burning the flags of Iran's arch-enemies Israel and the US, the students pelted stones at the embassy building. Police eventually succeeded in dispersing them. None of the demonstrators were seen getting arrested.

Switzerland represents the interests of the US in Iran because Tehran and Washington have had no diplomatic ties for more than three decades.

The furious students shouted 'Death to America' and 'The silence of each Muslim is a betrayal of the Koran.'

US pastor Terry Jones had planned to burn copies of the Koran on the ninth anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks, but abandoned the plan after it generated worldwide condemnation.

The students demanded the killing of Jones, while also calling on US President Barack Obama to condemn the Koran-burning plans and stop US support for Israel.

Earlier Monday, the speaker of Iran's parliament said that Muslim nations worldwide would not remain silent on Koran burnings in the US, describing them as 'an unprecedented crime.'

'The US is quite aware of the fact that the Muslim nations will not remain silent as far as one of their most important sanctities are concerned,' Ali Larijani said in a statement on behalf of parliament.

State television showed footage of an English-speaking man with an American accent burning a copy of the Koran, but did not clarify the date and location of the incident.

Iran insisted the US government was responsible for the burnings, saying Obama did not explicitly condemn the plan itself, but said only that such a move would endanger the lives of US soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq.

However, Obama did ask Jones to call off the burning, saying it was 'completely contrary to our values as Americans' and violated the country's ideals of religious freedom and religious tolerance.

But Iran claimed Washington backed the plan.

'We warn the US government to drop its support for this unprecedented crime and savage act; otherwise, it should await a resolute reply by world Muslims,' Larijani said in his statement, which was carried by the ILNA news agency.

Larijani also accused Israel of being the main element behind the Koran-burning plans, echoing remarks by Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki.

Meanwhile, two senior Iranian ayatollahs said that according to Islam, anybody insulting the Koran should be killed.

The Fars news agency quoted Ayatollah Hossein Nouri-Hamedani as saying that 'it was essential to kill anybody doing this act (insulting the Koran).'

Ayatollah Makarem Shirazi also said that anybody burning the Koran deserved to be killed, but both he and Nouri-Hamedani stressed that no action should be taken before approval and permission of a 'religious judge,' referring to religious jurists who are authorized to issue death decrees.