GAINESVILLE, Florida, Sept 7, (Agencies): A Christian minister said Tuesday that he will go ahead with plans to burn copies of the Quran this weekend to protest the Sept 11, 2001, terrorist attacks despite a warning from the top US general in Afghanistan that doing so would endanger American troops.
Pastor Terry Jones of the Dove World Outreach Center said he understands Gen David Petraeus’ concerns, but plans to go forward with the burning this Saturday, the ninth anniversary of the attacks.
He left the door open to change his mind, however, saying that he is still praying about his decision.
Petraeus warned Tuesday in an e-mail to The Associated Press that “images of the burning of a Quran would undoubtedly be used by extremists in Afghanistan — and around the world — to inflame public opinion and incite violence.”

Jones told the AP in a phone interview that he is also concerned but wonders how many times the US can back down.
“We think it’s time to turn the tables, and instead of possibly blaming us for what could happen, we put the blame where it belongs — on the people who would do it,” he said. “And maybe instead of addressing us, we should address radical Islam and send a very clear warning that they are not to retaliate in any form.”
Jones, who runs the small, evangelical Christian church with an anti-Islam philosophy, says he has received more than 100 death threats and has started wearing a .40-caliber pistol strapped to his hip.
The threats started not long after the 58-year-old minister proclaimed in July that he would stage “International Burn a Quran Day.” Supporters have been mailing copies of the Islamic holy text to his Dove World Outreach Center to be incinerated in a bonfire that evening.

The fire department has denied Jones a required burn permit for Sept 11, but he has vowed to go ahead with his event. He said lawyers have told him his right to burn the Quran is protected by the First Amendment whether he’s got permission from the city or not.
Muslims consider the Quran to be the word of God and insist it be treated with the utmost respect, along with any printed material containing its verses or the name of Allah or the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). Any intentional damage or show of disrespect to the Quran is deeply offensive.
In this progressive north Florida town of 125,000 anchored by the sprawling University of Florida campus, the lanky preacher with the bushy white mustache is mostly seen as a fringe character who doesn’t deserve the attention he’s getting.
Still, at least two dozen Christian churches, Jewish temples and Muslim organizations in Gainesville have mobilized to plan inclusive events — some will read from the Quran at their own weekend services — to counter what Jones is doing. A student group is organizing a protest across the street from the church on Sept 11.

Jones, who has about 50 followers, gained some local notoriety last year when he posted signs in front of his small church proclaiming “Islam is of the Devil.” But his Quran-burning scheme, after it caught fire on the Internet, brought rebukes from Muslim nations and an avalanche of media interview requests just as an emotional debate was taking shape over the proposed Islamic center near the World Trade Center site in New York.
FBI agents have visited to talk about their concerns for Jones’ safety, as multiple Facebook pages with thousands of members have popped up hailing him as either a hero or a dangerous pariah.
His plan has drawn formal condemnation from the world’s pre-eminent Sunni Muslim institution of learning, Al-Azhar University in Egypt, whose Supreme Council accused the church of stirring up hate and discrimination and called on other American churches speak out against it. Last month, Indonesian Muslims demonstrated outside the US embassy in Jakarta, threatening violence if Jones goes through with it.

“Whenever there’s a perception that America is somehow anti-Muslim, that harms our image and interests around the Islamic world,” said Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Council on American Islamic Relations, a Washington-based Muslim civil rights group that has worked to discredit Jones and counter his message.
Nato chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen also condemned the church’s plans to mark Saturday’s ninth anniversary of the Sept 11, 2001 attacks saying they were “in strong contradiction with all the values that we stand for and fight for.”
And he warned during a visit to Washington “there is a risk that it may also have a negative impact on security for our troops.”