US receives Yudhoyono`s letter to stop Quran-burning plan

Antara News, Thursday, September 9, 2010 22:23 WIB

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - The US government has received a letter from President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono asking Washington to urge Pastor Terry Jones to drop his plan to burn copies of the holy Quran, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said.

Yudhoyono has written to Barack Obama
 to urge the US president to intervene to
stop the Koran burning

President Yudhoyono sent the letter at dawn on Thursday asking President Barack Obama to take prompt steps to prevent Jones from torching copies of the Muslim holy book on the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, Teuku Faizasyah said.

In the letter, the Indonesian leader fully understood the US government`s stand on the Quran burning plan, he said.

"Indonesia realizes the US stand which strongly condemns the plan," he said.

If the Quran burning happened it would cause unrest, he said.

He said President Yudhoyono also called for closer cooperation between the two countries in bridging relations between Islam and the West.

"President Yudhoyono asked the two countries to try to build or bridge relations between the West and Islam. If the Quran burning plan happens the effort to build or bridge the relations will be fruitless," Faizasyah said.

Pastor Terry Jones of the Dove World Outreach Center church in Florida has launched a campaign of Quran burning plan.

Jones said he would torch copies of the Muslim holy book on the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks in an effort toward "exposing Islam as a violent and oppressive religion."

US State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley, in an effort to dissociate the US government from pastor Jones` plan, said the intended action was "un-American."

"We are conscious that a number of voices have come out and rejected what this pastor and this community have proposed," Crowley told a news briefing in Washington DC recently.

"We would like to see more Americans stand up and say `this is inconsistent with our American values.` In fact these actions themselves are un-American," he said.

He repeated warnings from officials including overall U.S. commander in Afghanistan David Petraeus that the proposed burning could undermine President Barack Obama`s efforts to reach out to the world`s 1.5 billion Muslims as well as trigger reprisals against US soldiers in Afghanistan.

"People around the world need to also understand that America is not represented by one pastor or 50 followers. We are a nation of 300 million people and the vast majority of Americans are standing up this week and saying that these contemplated actions are inappropriate, they`re abhorrent, and they should not happen," he said.

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