Quran burning averted

A TRADE-OFF of sorts has averted a crisis that had developed into an international flashpoint - the proposed burning of the Quran, the Muslim holy book, by a controversial leader of a small church in Florida, United States.

The Reverend Terry Jones had threatened to burn the Quran on Saturday to mark the ninth anniversary of 9/11, the day al-Qaida operatives hijacked four aircraft, crashing two into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York. Another aeroplane was crashed into the Pentagon and the last slammed into a field in Pennsylvania.

Nearly 3,000 people perished in the attacks.

Jones had attracted international attention with his plan to stage an 'International Burn a Koran Day'. However, the pastor shelved his plan after he reportedly reached an agreement with a New York Muslim cleric to relocate the so-called Ground Zero mosque.

He said Americans opposed the mosque being built at the location and that Muslims did not want the Quran burned.

US President Barack Obama, the top US general in Afghanistan and several Christian leaders had urged Jones to reconsider his plans to burn the Quran, Islam's holiest text that Muslims consider sacred. They said his actions would endanger US soldiers and provide a strong recruitment tool for Islamic extremists. Jones' protest also drew criticism from religious and political leaders from across the Muslim world.

Yesterday, US chargé d'affaires in Jamaica, Isiah Parnell, advised Muslims in Jamaica that the US Government had considered the planned action "intolerant and divisive".

See related story in International Section.