LEADALL: Calls for peace as fears of Koran burning recede

By The German Press Agency Sep 10, 2010, 18:25 GMT

Anger over plans by a small US church to burn the Koran turned deadly in Afghanistan on Friday, even as senior Islamic clerics called for moderation and it was unclear if the provocative event would go ahead.

Iraq's top Shiite Muslim leader, Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, slammed any defacement of the most sacred book in Islam, but called for discretion.

'While we denounce the assault on the Holy Koran and stress the importance of not letting this occur, we urge Muslims, whereever they are, to exercise the utmost restraint,' Sistani said.

'Do not do what would hurt the followers of the church,' he urged.

In Singapore, Muslim leader Abu-Bakar Maidin said there should be no reactionary behavior in response to the 'misguided' pastor's 'unfortunate' effort at incitement.

'Muslims should be extremely careful in not falling into the traps of such provocateurs,' Maidin added, calling the behaviour by the pastor 'irresponsible.'

At least one demonstrator was killed in north-eastern Afghanistan after police opened fire on a protest outside a German army camp when they began to throw stones at the camp.

Five participants were wounded as were five police officers, said Mohammad Amin Sohail, a spokesman for the government of Badakhshan province. Some 10,000 people attended the protest march.

The plans by Florida pastor Terry Jones and his congregation of 50 people to burn copies of the Koran has been called a 'recruitment bonanza for al-Qaeda' by President Barack Obama.

Late Thursday, Jones said he would cancel the plan, after an imam in New York supposedly agreed that his Muslim community had agreed to relocate a planned mosque away from the vicinity of ground zero, the site of the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001.

After it came out that no such deal had been reached, Jones said his church was only suspending its action. On Friday, he said the book burning would not take place.

Jones had planned to conduct his public event - which US officials said appeared to have more media buzz than participants - on the ninth anniversary of the attacks on New York and Washington.

The pastor's radicalism was being met by angry and worried reactions from around the world which continued to pour in.

Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono warned that a planned Koran burning by a US minister would threaten world peace.

'This is something that will threaten religious harmony and international peace,' he said.

'This reckless priest has renounced the Christian principle of tolerance,' said Mohamed Othman at the al-Azhar institute in Cairo.

The upcoming anniversary of the attacks of September 11, 2001 in the United States should not 'be used by those advocating division and confrontation to offend the deepest feelings and convictions of millions of people,' the Spanish Foreign Ministry said.