The White House on Monday slammed Holy Quran burning as "un-American" but said a US pastor's desecration of the Muslim holy book did not justify the killings of UN personnel in Afghanistan. "We absolutely condemn the burning of a holy text. We think it is un-American and inappropriate," said White House spokesman Jay Carney.
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 on President Barack Obama's written statement on Saturday which condemned the actions of US Pastor Terry Jones at his Florida church on March 20, but which did not stop Afghan violence.
"The desecration of any holy text, including the Koran, 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 Koran, which set off four days of deadly riots in Afghanistan created new dangers for American troops.
Petraeus told the Wall Street Journal the desecration of the Holy Quran 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 for a fourth day to denounce Jones. But Jones has told AFP 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.