The pastor of an obscure Christian church in the southern US state of Florida plans to burn copies of the Koran, the holy book of Muslims, to commemorate the ninth anniversary of the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States and protest against radical Islam.
Several world leaders have condemned the incendiary plan and called upon the pastor to give it up. US President Barack Obama has said the plan is playing into the hands of al-Qaeda and giving the terrorist group fresh recruits. India's home minister P Chidambaram has urged the US government to intervene and foil the pastor's plan, almost as if the US were India where at the slightest hint of trouble from religious fanatics the government shuts people up and stops them from expressing their opinion.
Several Islamic countries have also called upon Obama to prevent the act, with Pakistan's President Asif Ali Zardari warning that it would inflame Muslim sentiments around the world.
Where do you stand in this clash between freedom of expression and religious sentiment? Do you think countries like India, which are ever ready to ban books, films, etc, and Pakistan, the world's foremost exporter of Islamist terrorism, have any right to comment on the issue? Or would it be best to just ignore the whole thing as the antics of a madman and an internal affair of the United States?
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