MAIL ONLINE: Presidents of Indonesia and Pakistan condemn church / British Muslims to burn flags at U.S. embassy in protest / Downing Street 'strongly opposes' Koran-burning / Obama: Burnings a 'recruitment bonanza for Al Qaeda'Former Alaska governor Sarah Palin has slammed the leader of a tiny U.S. church's plans to burn the Koran on September 11.
The conservative leader, who is the darling of the Right-wing Tea Party movement, slammed Reverend Terry Jones' plans as 'counter-productive'.
She added that the plan was 'insensitive and an unnecessary provocation - much like building a mosque at Ground Zero.'
Her comments came as the presidents of Pakistan and Indonesia - the world's largest Muslim nation - added their voices to world-wide condemnation of the event.
Downing Street also entered the row today, with a spokesman for the prime Minister saying he 'strongly opposed' any attempt to offend members of a religious group.
The spokesman said: 'Primarily this is an issue for the US, but clearly the government's view is that we would not condone the burning of any book.
'We would strongly oppose any attempt to offend any member of any religious or ethnic group. We are committed to religious tolerance.'
Addressing the pastor directly on her Facebook page last night, Sarah Palin said his plan would 'feed the fire of caustic rhetoric and appear as nothing more than mean-spirited religious intolerance.'
'Don't feed that fire,' she urged him.
'If your ultimate point is to prove that the Christian teachings of mercy, justice, freedom, and equality provide the foundation on which our country stands, then your tactic to prove this point is totally counter-productive.'
'Book burning is antithetical to American ideals,' she wrote. Read on and comment >>> Mail Foreign Service | Thursday, September 09, 2010
