MANILA, Philippines - The Philippine Council of Evangelical Churches (PCEC) yesterday welcomed “with great relief” the shelving of the plan of a pastor in Florida to burn Islam’s holy book Koran amid worldwide condemnation that it had drawn.
“We are gratified that reason and sound judgment have finally prevailed in this sordid episode of religious bigotry and intolerance,” said PCEC national director Bishop Efraim Tendero in a statement.
Recently, Terry Jones, minister of Dove World Outreach Center church in Gainesville, Florida, had threatened to burn copies of the Koran to commemorate the 9/11 attacks in the United States.
The move had triggered international condemnation and even a warning from US President Barack Obama that it could provoke suicide bombings by al-Qaeda. But the other day, Jones had announced that he was cancelling his plan.
“The provocative nature of the burning of the Koran and the serious political and security consequences that it would have spawned are dreadful to contemplate. It could have set off untold violence and further provided fodder for propaganda to the very extremists that the act was intended to curtail.” Tendero said.
He added the burning would also “have further weakened the forces of moderation in the affected community and imperiled any hope of fostering understanding and peaceful co-existence among members of diverse religious communities, which we all need to promote to achieve peace and stop internecine religious conflicts and terrorism.”
Tendero said that burning a book “esteemed as sacred by others is not an act of love.”
“It is bereft of any redeeming Christian value. People with such hate in their heart cannot represent the Savior, who demonstrated his unconditional love by bleeding and dying even for the very people who nailed him on the cross. And followers of Christ are called upon to emulate Christ’s example and practice love for their neighbors and even for their enemies,” he added.
Tendero has “humbly” apologized to the Muslim community “for any misunderstanding that the incident in the United States has caused them.”
“We regret deeply that the true compassion of Christ and his desire to offer salvation to all have been carelessly marred by the action of a few of his followers,” he said.