Wiesenthal Center Condemns Church's Plan to Burn the Koran on 9/11

Center says 9/11 should be a day of prayers for the victims and their families—

"The burning of the book holy to the world's Muslims is morally repugnant."

NEW YORK, Sept. 8 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- On July 6, 2010, the Simon Wiesenthal Center issued a press release condemning the Dove World Outreach Center's plan to burn the Koran on September 11. This statement by the Wiesenthal Center was among the first of human rights groups to vehemently denounce the planned burning of the Koran by this Florida church.  As we feared and predicted, events leading up to this burning have ultimately lead to a recruiting effort to fuel this hate act.  On the eve of Rosh Hashanah the Wiesenthal Center would like to underscore it's denouncement of the Koran burning by reissuing its statement from July.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center joined the Evangelical Christian community in condemning a Gainesville, Florida church, the Dove World Outreach Center, for planning an "International Burn a Koran Day" this September 11, "in remembrance of the fallen victims of 9/11 and to stand against the evil of Islam; proclaiming 'Islam is of the devil!'"  

"September 11th should be a day for prayers for the 9/11 victims and their families and redoubling our resolve to defeat Al Qaeda and all other terrorists bent on our nation's destruction, including all those who validate the culture of death," said Rabbi Abraham Cooper, the Center's Associate Dean and Rabbi Yitzchok Adlerstein, the Center's Interfaith Director.

"The burning of the book holy to the world's Muslims is morally repugnant," the Rabbis continued. "We urge leaders of this Church to cancel this despicable act, which will certainly spawn a wave of new recruits for Islamic extremism and terrorism," they concluded.  

The Simon Wiesenthal Center is one of the largest international Jewish human rights organizations with over 400,000 member families in the United States. It is an NGO at international agencies including the United Nations, UNESCO, the OSCE, the OAS, the Council of Europe and the Latin American Parliament (Parlatino).

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SOURCE Simon Wiesenthal Center