President Barack Obama urged the pastor of a Florida church not to burn copies of the Koran on the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.
“I just want him to understand this stunt he’s talking about pulling could greatly endanger our young men and women in uniform,” Obama said in an interview on ABC’s “Good Morning America” program.
Terry Jones, pastor of the Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville, Fla., says he plans to burn Korans on the anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. U.S. Army General David Petraeus also has warned that the event would endanger U.S. troops.
The president called the pastor’s plan “a recruitment bonanza for al-Qaida.”
“You could have serious violence in places like Pakistan or Afghanistan,” he said. The Quran burning could “increase recruitment of individuals who’d be willing to blow themselves up in American cities or European cities.”
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