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Mission Fears Quran Burning Will Result in Christian Persecution

   Victor Beattie | Washington 09 September 2010

   The president of the California-based Open Doors USA organization that
   provides  Bibles,  training  and  other services to minority Christian
   groups   who  frequently  face  discrimination  around  the  world  is
   concerned about the impact Saturdayâs planned burning of copies of the
   Muslim holy book Quran by members of a Florida church.

   âThe  minority  Christian communities in Egypt, Pakistan, Afghanistan,
   Iraq,  Gaza,  other  places  around the world where extremism is often
   used  as  a weapon against American interests and Christian interests,
   Christians  are  very  vulnerable  in  those  situations,â  said  Carl
   Moeller.   âSo, our concerns really stem from not a religious liberty
   issue,  we certainly have the right to do whatever we would like to do
   on  a  free  speech or religious liberty basis here in America.  But,
   what  we have to take into consideration, and what I think this church
   has failed to take into consideration, is the impact of our actions on
   others.   And,  in  this case, the others represent Christians living
   throughout the Middle East and other parts of the Muslim world.â

   The  Dove  World  Outreach  Center  in  Gainesville, Florida, has been
   advertising  an  event  it calls International Burn a Quran Day.  The
   small  Christian  church  is  planning  to hold the event on September
   11th,  in  part to honor those killed in the 2001 terrorist attacks on
   New  York  and  Washington. The church's leader, Terry Jones, has said
   the burning of the Quran sends a message to violent Islamic extremists
   like  al-Qaida,  which  carried  out  the  attacks  against the United
   States.
   Moeller  said the Christian communities in many Muslim countries have,
   in the past, been targets of discrimination.
   âThey  have  already become targets of some other perceived slights to
   Islam  like the Danish cartoons of a few years ago.  It wasnât Danish
   cartoonists  that  were  burned or set on by mobs, but it was churches
   and  pastors  and  Christians in the local area that those mobs turned
   on,â said Moeller.
   The  president of Open Doors, a ministry that works in 60 countries to
   strengthen  Christian  minorities through community development, Bible
   and   Christian   literature  distribution,  leadership  training  and
   education  and  prayer and advocacy ministry, said actions such as the
   one  planned  by the Florida church can be used to bring Christians in
   other countries under a great deal of suffering.

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