A large Florida church, the Dove World Outreach Center, recently announced that it would be hosting a Quran burning event on its church property in commemoration of the anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. They have termed the event "The International Quran Burning Day" and believe it will help warn Americans about the dangers of Islam.
In a recent interview, the Senior Pastor of the church, Dr. Terry Jones explained, “We only did it because we felt there needed to be an outcry against Islam, because Islam is presenting itself as a religion of peace.”
However, America’s biggest evangelical body is now urging Terry Jones and his church to cancel the event entirely.
The National Association of Evangelicals on Thursday said that the event would show complete “disrespect” for Muslims and only serve to “exacerbate tensions” between the two religions worldwide.
“It sounds like the proposed Quran burning is rooted in revenge,” said NAE President Leith Anderson, in a statement. “Yet the Bible says that Christians should ‘make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong, but always try to be kind to each other and to everyone else’ (I Thessalonians 5:15).”
“The most powerful statement by the organizers of the planned September 11th bonfire would be to call it off in the name and love of Jesus Christ,” Anderson urged.
The NAE represents more than 45,000 local churches from well over forty denominations. Another NAE representative, Pastor Joel Hunter, said that, “We have to recognize that fighting fire with fire only builds a bigger fire.”
“Love is the water that will eventually quench the destruction,” he said.
The Council on American-Islam Relations, the nation’s largest Muslim advocacy group, plans to counter “International Burn a Quran Day” with a “Share the Quran” dinner on Sept. 11.
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