Qur'an burning is un-American: US
2011-04-04 23:15
Washington - The White House on Monday slammed Qur'an burning as "un-American" but said a US pastor's destruction of the Muslim holy book did not justify the killings of UN personnel in Afghanistan.
White House spokesperson Jay Carney said: "We absolutely condemn the burning of a holy text.
"We think it is un-American and inappropriate."
But after violence erupted in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif on Friday and claimed the lives of at least 22 people, including seven foreign UN staff, Carney said "absolutely nothing" justified such attacks.
The White House comments on Monday amplified what President Barack Obama had intimated on Saturday that he condemned the actions of US Pastor Terry Jones who burned the Qur'an at his Florida church on March 20.
"The desecration of any holy text, including the Qur'an, is an act of extreme intolerance and bigotry," Obama said.
But the president also said no religion justified the killing of innocent people.
The commander of US-led international forces in Afghanistan, General David Petraeus, said meanwhile, that the burning of the Qur'an, which set off four days of deadly riots in Afghanistan, created new dangers for American troops.
Petraeus told the Wall Street Journal that the desecration of the Qur'an was "hateful, extremely disrespectful and enormously intolerant."
Earlier on Monday, stone throwers scuffled with police as more than 1 000 Afghans took to the streets to denounce Jones.
But Jones has said that his evangelical church in Gainesville did not feel responsible for the attack on the UN.
"The radical element of Islam takes (the burning) as an excuse to promote their violent activities," he said.
